m 

i 

DK  JOHNSON: 


HIS   EELiaiOUS   LIFE 


AND 


HIS    DEATH. 


"As  for  Johnson,  I  have  always  considered  him  to  be,  by  nature,  one  of  our  great 
English  souls.  A  strong  and  noble  man ;  so  much  left  undeveloped  in  him  to  the 
last  *  *  *  Johnson  was  a  prophet  to  his  people — preached  a  gospel  to  them — as  all 
like  him  always  do  !" — Carjlyle  on  Heroes,  Hero-Worship. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER   &  BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 
82    CLIFF    STREET. 

18  50. 


A 


r-f  .-> 


PREFACE  TO  THE  READER. 


When  Doctor  Johnson  died,  it  was  said  of  him 
by  one  who  had  been  intimately  acquainted  with 
him  nearly  thirty  years,  "  He  has  made  a  chasm, 
which  not  only  nothing  can  fill  up,  but  which  noth- 
ing has  a  tendency  to  fill  up.  Johnson  is  dead. 
Let  us  go  to  the  next  best :  there  is  nobody  :  no 
man  can  be  said  to  put  you  in  mind  of  Johnson." 
And  does  not  this  observation  hold  on  to  the  present 
day  ?  We  have  had  a  Southey,  a  pure  writer,  and 
most  noble  genius,  a  man  too  of  independence  and 
struggling  in  life,  but  not  a  Johnson. 

Dr.  Johnson  had  his  defamers,  the  open  ones  and 
mean  ones.  One  of  these  latter  ceased  not  to  snarl 
after  the  great  man's  death,  and  to  the  face  of  this 
one  did  the  Rev.  Dr.  Parr  boldly  say,  "Ay,  now 
that  the  old  lion  is  dead,  every  ass  thinks  he  may 
kick  at  him."  But  the  longer  the  lion  dead,  so 
much  the  larger  has  that  lion  become.  And  where 
shall  we  now  find  the  ass  ? 


iv  PREFACE  TO  THE  READER. 

Politically  speaking,  it  must  be  expected  that 
there  should  be  many  who  will  not  agree  with  Dr. 
Johnson.  But  these  hold  him  dear  in  memory. 
Leigh  Hunt,  in  one  of  his  interesting  and  enter- 
taining works,  ^  when  excusing  Johnson's  pompous 
manner,  says :  *'  At  all  events,  one  is  willing  to 
think  the  best  of  what  was  accompanied  by  so  much 
excellence.  Affectation  it  was  not ;  for  nobody 
despised  pretension  of  any  kind  more  than  he  did. 
Johnson  was  a  sort  of  born  bishop  in  his  way,  with 
high  judgments  and  cathedral  notions  lording  it  in 
his  mind,  and  ex  cathedra  he  accordingly  spoke." 
This  "born  bishop"  is  a  felicitous  term.  "He  ad- 
vanced," says  Leigh  Hunt  again,  "  by  the  power  of 
his  conversation,  the  strictness  of  his  veracity,  and 
the  respect  he  exacted  toward  his  presence,  what 
may  be  called  the  personal  dignity  of  literature. 
The  consequence  has  been  not  exactly  what  he  ex- 
pected, but  certainly  what  the  great  interests  of 
knowledge  require,  and  Johnson  has  assisted  men 
with  whom  he  little  thought  of  co-operating,  in  stat- 
ing the  claims  of  Truth  and  Beneficence  above  all 
others  /"  These  latter  words  may  be  claimed  as 
the  text  of  some  discourse  in  this  book. 

Dr.  Johnson  truly  had  no  affectation ;  no  sham 
eccentricities  about  him.  He  was  one  of  Carlyle's 
"  noble  silent  men,  scattered  here  and  there  :   silently 

*   "The  Town,"  by  Leigh  Hunt :   2  vols.  Smith  and  Elder. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  READER.  v 

thinking  ;  silently  working ;  whom  no  morning  news- 
paper makes  mention  of."  Yes,  Johnson  with  all 
his  conversation,  was  not  of  the  noisy  inanity  of  the 
world  ;  no  words  of  little  meaning,  no  actions  of  little 
worth  were  found  in  him.  "  Old  Samuel  Johnson," 
exclaims  Carlyle,=^  ''the  greatest  soul  in  England 
in  his  day,  was  not  ambitious.  'Corsica  Boswell' 
flaunted  at  public  shows  with  printed  ribbons  round 
his  hat ;  but  the  great  Old  Samuel  staid  at  home. 
The  world-wide  soul  wrapt  up  in  its  thoughts,  in  its 
sorrows — what  could  paradings  and  ribbons  in  the 
hat  do  for  it  ?"  Let  us  not,  however,  decry  Bos- 
well, for  his  very  failings  have  been  of  valuable  serv- 
ice to  men  who  have  the  greatest  relish  for  litera- 
ture. He  esteemed  Johnson,  and  Johnson  esteemed 
him;  and  that  should  be  enough  for  us:  whether  it 
be  true  or  not  that  Dr.  Johnson  said  to  Mr.  Long, 
"  Sir,  if  I  were  to  lose  Boswell,  it  would  be  a  limb 
amputated." 

Two  men  of  note  might  be  seen  contemporaneous- 
ly in  the  streets  of  London.  There  was  Wesley,  in 
his  band  and  cassock,  with  his  long  hair,  white  and 
bright  as  silver,  his  face  and  manner  indicating  that 
all  his  minutes  were  numbered,  and  that  not  one  was 
to  be  lost.  Often  irascible  in  temper,  his  countenance 
was  calm  ;  and  he  was  remarkable  for  the  cleanness 
and   neatness   of   his    appearance.      And   there   was 

*  "Heroes  and  Hero  Worship;"  p.  351. 


vi  PREFACE  TO  THE  READER. 

Johnson,  issuing  forth  from  the  silent  retreat  of  Bolt- 
court,  bodily  and  bulkily,  into  the  human  tide  of  Fleet- 
street  :  one  time  swaying  against  a  huge  porter,  who 
wisely  contented  himself  with  gazing  in  wonderment 
after  his  rolling  antagonist;  at  another,  lifting  pol- 
luted misery  out  of  the  mire,  and  from  the  very  jaws 
of  starvation  and  death  ;  and  then  seated  on  his 
throne,  the  chair  of  the  Literary  Club — he,  the  ath- 
letic and  uncouth,  in  the  old  brown  coat,  and  shab- 
bier wig.  Contrasts,  indeed,  these  men  in  person, 
and,  in  great  degree,  in  sentiment :  both  worthy  of 
admiration  and  love  ;  but  the  one  of  a  deeper  and 
more  enduring  fame  than  the  other. 

With  Dr.  Johnson  we  have  to  do :  with  his  relig- 
ious life,  and  his  death.  No  apology  can  be  due  to 
the  public  for  another  book  on  Dr.  Johnson  ;  but  every 
indulgence  must  be  asked  for  the  inadequacy  of  the 
performance.  It  may  yet  be  improved  :  some  things 
omitted,  some  things  added.  In  reading  the  life  of 
Johnson,  the  author  could  not  fail  to  perceive,  in  com- 
mon with  others,  the  exquisite  vein  of  religion  and  its 
humanities  that  runs  through  the  whole :  but  then, 
this  vein  is  not  as  that  of  marble  in  the  rough  rock, 
but  is  so  surrounded  on  all  sides  with  literary  matter 
of  the  highest  interest,  that  its  continuous  line,  though 
it  can  not  be  hid,  yet  may  not  have  the  prominence  it 
deserves.  To  place  the  religion  and  beneficence  of 
Dr.    Johnson   more   by   themselves,   though  mingled, 


i'REFACE  TO  THE  READER.  vii 

more  or  less  in  all  his  thoughts  and  works,  and  to 
enable  others  to  discern  them  at  a  glance,  this  has 
been  the  aim,  the  desire,  of  the  author. 

And  what  a  religious  life  it  was !  What  evidence 
do  his  written  Prayers  give  (from  the  18  th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1738,  to  the  18th  of  September,  1781),  of 
the  devout  state  of  his  mind  ;  and  during  this  time, 
as  well  as  before  and  afterward,  how  did  his  works 
prove  the  depth,  the  charity,  the  sincerity  of  his  re- 
ligion. Mark  those  prayers  in  your  privacy  (for  his 
deeds  and  conversation  are  more  alluded  to  in  this 
book)  ;  mark  the  beautiful  reverence,  perspicuity,  and 
simplicity  of  their  language — no  flowery  expressions, 
or  pomp  of  diction  used,  such  as  abound  in  the 
"  Rambler :"  every  thing  proceeds  from  the  heart — 
humble,  contrite,  penitent,  and  full  of  gratitude  I 
See  in  his  Meditations  his  devout  spirit  kept  alive, 
and  the  image  of  his  Redeemer  never  out  of  sight. 
During  all  this  period  of  life  we  find  his  charities  (in 
the  Scripture  sense)  in  constant,  silent  vigor  :  we 
mark  his  independence  of  mind,  never  a  beggar,  and 
writing  bravely  to  Lord  Chesterfield :  we  acknowl- 
edge his  worth,  even  Mr.  Thrale,  a  man  of  business 
and  immense  wealth,  selecting  him  as  his  executor  : 
nothing  equivocal  in  his  actions,  nothing  mean  or 
paltry,  but  intent  ''  aperto  vivere  voto,"  without  the 
least  ostentation  of  virtue.  Not  an  atom  of  stoical 
pride,  not  an  atom  of  selfishness  or  self-righteousness 


viii  TREFACE  TO  THE  READER. 

in  his  composition.  The  incorrupta  fides  without  the 
boasted  mens  conscia  recti  assumed  by  your  heathen 
philosophers  and  moralists.  Such  was  Dr.  Johnson 
in  life,  and  in  him  the  union  of  high  intellectual  fac- 
ulties with  a  firm  belief  in  Christianity  has  conferred, 
under  the  Divine  blessing,  a  signal  benefit  on  man- 
kind :  and  while  he  loved  and  venerated  the  Church 
of  England,  it  was  in  St.  Cyprian's  sense  of  the 
universal  Church,  who  wrote,  "neither  can  any  man 
be  united  to  the  Church,  who  is  separated  from  the 
Gospel."  ^ 

And  Dr.  Johnson,  after  many  avowed  fears,  was 
calm  and  resigned  in  his  death.  To  have  a  fear  of 
death  is  natural  in  man,  as  the  great  portrayer  of 
human  nature  saith,  f 

"  The  weariest  and  most  loathed  worldly  life, 
That  age,  ache,  penury,  and  imprisonment 
Can  lay  on  nature,  is  a  paradise 
To  what  we  fear  of  death." 

But  still  this  natural  propensity  can  be  overcome, 
and  the  influence  of  those  invisible  realities  which 
create  and  sustain  all  Christian  rectitude,  will  enable 
one,  who  is  blessed  by  that  Comforter  which  is  prom- 
ised to  be  with  the  Church  alway,  to  exclaim  in  hum- 
blest dependence  upon  Christ,  "O  death,  where  is  thy 

*  See  Bishop  Jewell's  "  Apology  of  the  Church  of  England,"  p. 
143,  edit.  1685. 

f  "Measure  for  Measure:"  Act  iii.  So.  1. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  READER.  ix 

sting?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory?"  The  fear 
of  God,  and  not  of  man,  seems  ever  to  have  been  be- 
fore the  eyes  of  Dr.  Johnson,  accompanied  by  a  deep 
sense  of  his  own  utter  unworthiness  to  obtain  salva- 
tion, save  through  the  merits  of  our  blessed  Saviour ; 
and  it  appears  to  have  been  the  effect  of  deeply  relig- 
ious feeling,  that  made  him  averse  even  to  speak  on 
the  subject  of  death.  To  some  other  men  another 
manner  is  allowed.  But  to  personal  fear  he  was 
always  an  entire  stranger ;  and  the  aged  hero,  ever 
intrepid  amid  all  his  infirmities,  when  informed  by  his 
physician  that  he  could  not  recover,  "  Then,"  said 
he,  "I  will  take  no  more  physic,  not  even  my  opiates  ; 
for  I  have  prayed  that  I  may  render  up  my  soul  to 
God  unclouded."  Undauntedly  did  he  meet  death  ; 
prepared  in  body  and  soul  for  its  approach.  Reader, 
it  is  well  that  it  should  be  thus  with  any  man  ! 
Amen. 

A* 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Page 

Dr.  Johnson — his  Literary  and  Religious  Life 13 

CHAPTER  H. 
His  Early  Religious  Life 19 

CHAPTER  HL 
His  Religion 30 

CHAPTER  IV. 
His  Religion • 36 

CHAPTER  V. 
His  Humanity • 45 

CHAPTER  VL 
Continued  Instances 63 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Further  Instances 74 

CHAPTER  Vin. 
His  Churchmanship 85 

CHAPTER  IX. 
His  Churchmanship 109 

CHAPTER  X. 
His  Churchmanship 122 

CHAPTER  XL 
His  Churchmanship # 142 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Page 

His  Churchmanship 176 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
.Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow 213 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Opinions  on  Dissent  and  Dissenters 221 

CHAPTER  XV. 
More  Opinions  on  and  Treatment  of  Dissenters 243 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
The  Wesleyan  Methodists 255 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Roman  Catholics 272 

CHAPTER  XVm. 
Monastic  Life 294 

CHAPTER  XIX 
His  Superstition 315 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Epitaphs 333 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Close  of  Dr.  Johnson's  Life — the  Fear  of  Death 348 

CHAPTER  XXn. 
Close  of  Dr.  Johnson's  Life — His  Calmness  in  Death 366 

CHAPTER  XXHI. 
Conclusion 385 


DR.   JOHNSON. 

HIS  LITERARY  AND   RELIGIOUS   LIFE 


CHAPTER  I. 


"We  continued  our  reading  of  Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets.  How 
often  at  midnight,  as  he  listened  with  avidity,  he  apologized  to  me  for 
keeping  me  from  my  rest !  but,  still  delighted  with  our  reading,  he 
would  say,  '  Well,  you  may  go  on  a  little  more.'  " — Trqtteb's  Memoirs 
of  Fox. 

The  same  warm  spirit  of  approval  with  which  Charles 
James  Fox,=^  in  his  last  illness,  stamped  the  literary  talent 
of  Johnson,  has  animated  a  very  recent  writer  to  speak  of 
his  kindly  affections.  "  There  was  in  Dr.  Johnson,"  says  the 
Rev.  James  S.  M.  Anderson,  f  "  an  earnest  and  practical 
benevolence,  which  no  man  has  surpassed."  It  shall  be  a 
main  purpose  of  these  pages  to  verify  this  saying  from  evi- 
dence ;  for  herein  we  view  one  of  the  fairest  fruits  of  religion. 
Little  or  no  allusion  shall  be  made  to  his  political  sympa- 

*  Though  Fox  was  shy  of  speaking  much  in  the  presence  of  Johnson, 
and  Johnson  avoided  converse  with  him  and  others,  thinking  at  one 
time  that  he  almost  deserved  hanging  for  his  political  opinions,  yet  we 
find  Boswell  asking  Johnson  whether  it  was  true  that  he  had  said 
lately,  "  I  am  for  the  king  against  Fox  :  but  I  am  for  Fox  against 
Pitt."  Johnson  : — '•  Yes,  sir  :  the  king  is  my  master  :  but  I  do  not 
know  Pitt :  and  Fox  is  my  friend."  Johnson  added,  that  Fox  was  a 
most  extraordinary  man;  while  we  are  told  that  Fox  "plainly  showed 
much  partiality  for  Johnson."  Fox  was  a  member  of,  and  sometimes 
presided  at  the  Literary  Club ;  but  Boswell  records  little  of  the  con- 
versations that  took  place. 

f  In  an  admirable  Lecture  on  Dr.  Johnson,  in  "  Addresses  on  Mis- 
cellaneous Subjects,"  by  the  Rev.  J.  S.  M.  Anderson,  Chaplain  in 
Ordinary  to  the  Queen,  &c.     Rivingtons.      1849. 


14  DR.  JOHNSON: 

thies  or  prejudices  ;  for,  while  Johnson  was  a  Tory,  his 
contemporary  Addison  was  a  Whig  ;  and  may  we  not,  in 
great  measure,  regret  that  such  men  should  ever  become 
involved  in  the  troubling  speculations  of  politics  ?  Edmund 
Burke  and  George  Canning  I  you  would  have  gone  down  to 
posterity  with  fuller  and  nobler  remembrance,  had  you  more 
loved  the  leisure  for  that  intellectual  toil  which  leads  to  pro- 
founder  and  more  lasting  achievement  in  the  universal  fields 
of  literature  and  science. 

Croker  observes,  that  the  very  name  of  Johnson's  biogra- 
pher is  likely  to  be  "  as  far  spread  and  as  lasting  as  the 
English  language  ;"  what  then  must  be  the  knowledge  of 
mankind  concerning  Johnson  himself,  who,  in  that  very  lan- 
guage which  is  so  probably  destined  to  become  one  of  the 
most  extended  on  the  earth,  has  written  such  lessons  of 
wisdom,  spoken  aphorisms  worthy  the  noblest  ages  of  phi- 
losophy, and  delivered,  in  common  conversation,  moral  and 
religious  principles,  which  can  never  be  out  of  human  remem- 
brance until  an  absolute  empire  of  Antichrist  overspreads 
the  world  ?  For,  although  the  name  of  Boswell  will  be 
transmitted  to  all  future  time,  yet,  "  You  have  made  them 
all  talk  Johnson,"  was  the  remark  made  to  him  ;  and  his 
own  observation  was  becoming,  "  Yes,  I  may  add,  I  have 
Johnsonized  the  land  ;  and  I  trust  they  will  not  only  talk, 
but  think  Johnson  I''  Largeness  of  mind,  and  liberality 
of  heart,  will  inevitably  be  the  lot  of  all  those  who  have 
power  granted  them  to  think  as  Johnson  thought. 

It  was  well  said  by  a  Scotchman,*  "  When  you  see  him 
first,  you  are  struck  with  awful  reverence ;  then  you  admire 
him  ;  and  then  you  love  him  cordially."  It  may  be  doubted 
whether  many  have  got  beyond  the  bounds  of  reverence  and 
admiration  :  it  is  on  closest  acquaintance  that  you  learn  to 
love  him.  "  To  enjoy  Dr.  Johnson  perfectly,"  wrote  Hannah 
More,  "one  must  have  him  to  one's  self;"  and  thus,  when 
we  can  no  longer  see  him  bodily  present,  we  must  view 
him,  not  so  much  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  "  clubbable"  dis- 
position, or  in  the  more  magnificent  walks  of  literature,  or 
in  the  presence  of  kings,  and  lords,  and  hosts  of  friends  ;  but 
*  Donald  Macleod,  a  Highland  chief. 


HIS  LITERARY  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  15 

in  the  unobtrusive  deed  of  charity,  in  letters  of  consolation  to 
the  afflicted,  in  counsel  given  to  the  friendless,  substantial 
help  to  the  struggling,  hospitality  to  the  obscure,  and  in  his 
own  thoughts  when  almost  alone.  Mr.  Steevens  makes  this 
honorable  mention  of  him,  and  he  knew  his  private  life 
well :  "  Could  the  many  bounties  he  studiously  concealed, 
the  many  acts  of  humanity  he  performed  in  private,  be  dis- 
played with  equal  circumstantiality,  his  defects  would  be  so 
far  lost  in  the  blaze  of  his  virtues,  that  the  latter  only  would 
be  regarded."  We  must  always  suppose  that  a  large  amount 
of  the  beneficence  of  charitable  individuals  is  hidden  from 
public  notice. 

The  world  at  the  present  time,  equally  as  in  Johnson's 
own  days,  may  too  much  regard  him  as  the  giant  in  litera- 
ture, just  as  we  gaze  in  wonder  and  awe  on  the  huge  mount- 
ain in  the  landscape,  or  on  the  robust  and  rugged  oak  that 
mocks  with  its  stalwart  form  the  tenderer  trees  that  bend  in 
more  beauty  around ;  and  very  probably,  in  like  manner  as 
the  sight  of  the  vaster  works  of  nature  appall  and  pain  the 
mind  accustomed  to  the  smoother  scenes  of  creation,  and  as 
the  elegant  flower  enraptures  us  more  than  the  gnarled  and 
proud  hero  of  the  forest,  so  there  are  those  who  would  rather 
like  to  gaze  on  our  human  leviathan  at  a  distance  :  rather 
listen  to  his  wise  and  ponderous  thoughts  in  the  more  familiar 
form  of  anecdote  ;  or  rather  forsake  him  entirely  for  the  more 
brilliant  and  evanescent  sayings  of  inferior  men.  All  these, 
however,  look  upon  him  with  mental  awe — they  know  there 
is  an  Alp  in  the  realms  of  literature  as  well  as  of  nature  ; 
but  they  as  readily  decline  an  acquaintance  with  the  one,  as 
they  would  rather  put  off  to  a  never-arriving  season  their 
journey  to  the  other.  And  this  same  idea  probably  pervades 
them  in  regard  to  the  religion,  equally  as  to  the  literature 
of  the  man  ;  all  is  so  vast,  so  solemn,  so  bluntly  sincere, 
sometimes  telling  more  of  severity  than  sweetness,  savoring 
of  any  apostolic  mind,  rather  than  that  of  the  beloved  disciple 
who  leaned  on  the  heavenly  bosom  :  there  is  such  knowledge 
of  the  human  heart  in  its  worth  and  in  its  pretensions,  and 
such  bold,  outspoken  opinion,  that  they  feel  afraid  to  approach 
too  nearly  to  one  who  may  frown  on  their  deficiencies,  rather 


IG  DR.  JOHNSON: 

than  encourage,  with  serener  brow  and  smoother  tongue, 
their  unduly  accelerated  advances ;  although  they  well  know 
that,  in  reality,  no  instance  of  true  humility  or  merit  would 
ever  escape  his  earnest  and  faithful  regard.  We  may  not 
wish  these  to  "  talk  Johnson"  unless  they  can  be  brought  to 
"  think  Johnson ;"  nor  may  we  care  to  see  the  whole  world, 
so  long  as  the  pure  pattiprn  of  an  Addison  exists,  thoroughly 
Johnsonized  ;  yet  we  may  say,  that  in  few  ages  of  the  world 
is  a  goodly  leaven  of  the  great  and  honest  heart  of  Johnson 
more  needed  than  in  the  present  time,  when  mankind  are  in 
danger  of  heeding  the  allurements  of  frivolous  and  brilliant 
entertainment  in  preference  to  sound  and  rightly  severe  instruc- 
tion, and  when  mere  sensual  cant,  in  literary  or  religious  garb, 
takes  the  place  of  the  sublime  and  the  sincere. 

This  observation,  be  it  remembered,  is  to  be  only  partially 
applied.  We  must  not  decry  the  present  age  which,  per- 
haps, in  a  general  point  of  view,  is  the  best  to  live  in  of 
any  period  that  has  passed  in  the  world.  Johnson  would 
not  dispraise  his  own  times.  When  Lord  Monboddo  said 
that  our  ancestors  were  better  than  we,  <<  No,  no,  my  lord," 
exclaimed  Johnson,  "  we  are  as  strong  as  they,  and  a  great 
deal  wiser."  In  talking  of  writers  and  preachers,  he  said, 
now  "every  body  composes  pretty  well:  there  are  no  such 
inharmonious  periods  as  there  were  a  hundred  a  years  ago  ;" 
and  he  only  found  fault,  wrongly,  as  we  may  now  think, 
with  the  innovation  that  put  a  stop  to  the  processions  accom- 
panying a  criminal  to  Tyburn.  And  although  he  writes, 
"  The  mental  disease  of  the  present  generation  is  impatience 
of  study,  contempt  of  the  great  masters  of  ancient  wisdom, 
and  a  disposition  to  rely  wholly  upon  unassisted  genius  and 
natural  sagacity  ;"*  and  declared  that  "  if  no  use  is  made  of 
the  labors  of  past  ages,  the  world  must  remain  always  in  the 
infancy  of  knowledge  ;"  yet  he  said,  '« I  am  always  angry 
when  I  hear  ancient  times  praised  at  the  expense  of  modern 
times.  There  is  now  a  great  deal  more  learning  in  the  world 
than  there  was  formerly  ;  for  it  is  universally  diffused.  You 
have,  perhaps,  no  man  who  knows  so  much  Greek  and  Latin 
as  Bentley  :  no  man  who  knows  so  much  mathematics  as 
*  Rambler,  No.  154.     See  also  No.  50. 


HIS  LITERARY  AiND  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  17 

Newton: 'but  you  have  many  more  men  who  know  Greek 
and  Latin,  and  who  know  mathematics."  How  still  more 
strikingly  true  is  this  of  our  own  times  I  Boswell  says  that 
Johnson  was  never  querulous,  never  prone  to  inveigh  against 
the  present  times,  as  is  so  common  when  superficial  minds 
are  on  the  fret.  Yet  if  personal  superiority  over  our  fellows 
might  give  us  right  to  talk  of  the  mediocrity  of  the  age,  he 
fully  possessed  that  right,  both  as  regards  intellect  and  moral 
disposition.  In  him  the  light  of  genius,  united  with  the  light 
of  religion,  is  shown  to  be  capable  of  producing  a  pure  and 
steady  splendor,  far  surpassing  the  bright  flashes  occasionally 
emitted  by  the  glare  of  genius  w^hen  combined  with  impuri- 
ties of  heart,  and  followed  generally  by  flickering  and  eccen- 
tric motions.  A  modern  anecdote  may  serve  to  illustrate  my 
meaning.  Sergeant  Lens  having  opened  a  difficult  case  in  a 
most  temperate  and  lucid  manner  before  Judge  Dallas,  Dal- 
las, at  the  conclusion  of  the  opening,  sent  on  a  strip  of  paper 
the  two  following  lines  to  him  : 

"  Lens,  like  an  argand  lamp,  shines  clear  and  bright, 
Consumes  the  smoke,  and  gives  us  only  light." 

Sometimes  Johnson  loved  argument  merely  for  the  sake 
of  testing  the  ground  on  which  others  gave  out  their  sen- 
tences :  and  then  often  the  outburst  of  his  mind,  like  Foote's 
conversation,  resembled  a  great  furnace,  whose  heat  was  so 
intense,  that  it  obliged  you  to  stand  at  a  distance  from  it. 
«'  When  I  was  a  boy,"  he  said,  "  I  used  always  to  choose  the 
wrong  side  of  a  debate,  because  most  ingenious  things,  that 
is,  most  new  things,  could  be  said  upon  it :"  but  we  under- 
stand the  object  of  his  sometimes,  when  a  man,  following  this 
rule.  He  felt  this  to  be  also  an  inducement  to  others  ;  for 
of  skeptics,  and  false  reasoners,  he  remarked,  "  Truth  will 
not  afford  sufficient  food  for  their  vanity,  so  they  have  betaken 
themselves  to  error."  All  objections  to,  as  well  as  proof  for, 
any  important  matter,  were  reflected  on  in  his  mind,  and 
thus  he  writes,  "  Every  thing  which  Hume  has  advanced 
against  Christianity  had  passed  through  my  mind  long  before 
he  wrote." 

Small  actions  mark  his  sagacity  in  supposing  where  mean- 
ness might  be  found,  and  show  his  contempt  of  it.      Thus  he 


18         DR.  JOHNSON'S  LITERARY  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

bought  his  little  parcels  of  tea  and  sugar  "  at  a  stately  shop," 
because  it  would  not  be  worth  their  while  to  take  a  petty- 
advantage  :  yet  he  was  not  allured  by  appearances  and  titles, 
for,  having  observed  the  paltry  vanity  of  many  people  in 
quoting  the  authority  of  dukes  and  lords,  as  having  been  in 
their  company,  he  said,  he  went  to  the  other  extreme,  and 
would  not  mention  his  authority  when  he  should  have  done 
it,  had  it  not  been  that  of  a  duke  or  a  lord. 

"Nor  wealth  nor  titles  make  Aspasia's  bliss."* 

Another  kind  of  nobility  he  best  recognized.  The  name 
of  a  person  having  been  mentioned  to  him,  he  said,  "Let  me 
hear  no  more  of  him.  That  is  the  fellow  who  made  the  in- 
dex to  my  Ramblers,  and  set  down  the  name  of  Milton  thus 
— Milton,  ISlr.  John."  And  though  ignorance  more  than 
insult  perpetrated  this  mistake,  yet  Johnson's  lines  will  oc- 
cur to  us  as  further  proof  of  his  feeling — 

"  Fate  never  wounds  more  deep  the  generous  heart, 
Than  when  a  blockhead's  insult  points  the  dart." 
He  could  not  bear  pretension  or  presumption  in  any  man. 
He  was  told  of  an  impudent  fellow  who  affected  to  rail  at  all 
established  systems  :  "  There  is  nothing  surprising  in  this," 
calmly  observed  Johnson,  "  he  wants  to  make  himself  con- 
spicuous- He  would  tumble  in  a  pig-sty  so  long  as  you 
looked  at  him  and  called  to  him  to  come  out.  But  let  him 
alone,  never  mind  him,  and  he'll  soon  give  it  over." 

This  is  prudent  advice,  and  came  worthily  from  him,  who 
"  in  all  things  and  every  where,  spoke  out  in  plain  English, 
from  a  soul  wherein  Jesuitism  could  find  no  harbor,  and  with 
the  front  and  tone  not  of  a  diplomatist  but  of  a  man."t 
There  were  no  jewels  of  paste  about  his  head  ;  he  wore  no 
borrowed  crown  :  his  was  gold  without  glitter,  and  he  enjoy- 
ed a  kinghood  of  his  own.  Moreover,  we  shall  find,  as  we 
proceed,  that  "  few  men  on  record  have  had  a  more  merciful, 
tenderly  afiectionate  nature  than  old  Samuel"! — ay,  when 
young  or  when  older,  when  poor  or  when  richer,  when  learn- 
ing or  when  learned  :  he  was  always  the  same,  loving  and 
beloved. 

*  Irene.  t  Carlyle's  Miscellanies,  iv.  96.  \  Ibid.  103. 


CHAPTER  II. 
EARLY   RELIGIOUS   LIFE. 

Dr.  Johnson  seems  to  have  been  blessed  with  strong  im- 
pressions of  religion  at  a  very  early  time  of  life  :  and  these 
impressions  certainly  biased  the  tone  of  his  religious  feeling 
— one  of  fear  rather  than  of  love — during  the  periods  of 
manhood  and  old  age.  He  himself  said,  that  he  remembered 
distinctly  having  had  the  first  notice  of  heaven,  "  a  place  to 
which  good  people  went,"  and  hell,  "  a  place  to  which  bad 
people  went,"  communicated  to  him  by  his  mother,  when  a 
little  child,  in  bed  with  her.  When  he  was  as  yet  in  petti- 
coats, she  put  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  into  his  hands, 
and  he  learned  the  collect  for  the  day  with  wonderful  quick- 
ness. But  she  did  not  always  train  his  young  mind  with 
judicious  care.  "  Sunday,"  he  says,  "  was  a  heavy  day  to 
me  when  I  was  a  boy.  My  mother  confined  me  on  that 
day,  and  made  me  read  the  '  Whole  Duty  of  Man,'  from  a 
great  part  of  which  I  could  derive  no  satisfaction  ;"  and  he 
gives  an  instance  in  proof  of  this  feeling.  Soon  he  fell  into 
an  indifference  about  religion — talked  flippantly  about  it — 
found  great  reluctance  to  enter  a  church — and  not  until  he 
resided  in  college  at  Oxford,  and  took  up  "  Law's  Serious 
Call  to  a  Holy  Life,"  did  he  recover  from  this  supineness  in 
the  most  important  business  of  life.  How  often  do  we  find 
our  joyous  Christian  Sunday  invested  with  notions  of  gloom, 
through  false  and  injudicious  teaching,  even  in  the  minds  of 
adult  scholars,  and  its  present  use,  as  well  as  its  type  of  the 
future,  entirely  perverted  I  In  after  life,  we  find  him  hold- 
ing rational  and  benevolent  ideas  respecting  the  proper  observ- 
ance of  the  Christian  Sabbath. 

Here  we  may  be  permitted  to  observe  the  usefulness  of 
parental  education.  How  many  children,  before  escaping 
from  the   nursery,    have   learned    lessons   of  virtue   from   a 


20  DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

mother  or  a  father,*  that  have  never  been  forgotten — never 
been  driven  out  of  the  mind  and  heart  by  the  largest  additions 
of  subsequent  knowledge  I  Of  all  maternal  patterns,  the 
mother  of  St.  Augustine  ranks  the  first.  From  parental 
instruction,  such  minds  as  those  of  Wotton,  Hooker,  Her- 
bert, Sanderson,  Sec,  Sec,  derived  inestimable  benefit.  The 
mother  of  Adam  Clarke,  like  Johnson's  mother,  v^as  a 
stern,  yet  useful  instructor  in  the  ways  of  religion  :  for  with 
what  horror  young  Adam  heard  the  croak  of  the  raven  after 
she  had  referred  him,  on  some  case  of  disobedience,  to  that 
verse  of  Scripture,  which  told  him  that  the  ravens  would 
pick  out  the  eyes  of  the  mocking  child  I  (Prov.  xxx.  17)  ; 
and,  he  says,  "  my  mother's  reproofs  and  terrors  never  left 
me."  It  was  the  mother  of  Byron  M^ho  led  him  among  the 
grander  scenes  of  nature,  and  formed  within  him  that  gifted 
portion  of  his  mind  which  imagined  noble  poetry.  And  thus 
inanimate  things  affect  us  also.  The  "  church  bells  of  our 
home,"  the  "  fragrance  of  our  old,  paternal  fields,"  dwell  in 
our  remembrance  ;  and  influence  us  to  good,  to  the  latest 
hour  of  our  lives. f  A  case  to  the  contrary,  such  as  Words- 
worth's "  Michael,"  may  occur  ;  but  who  is  there  that  can 
say  that  his  earliest  lessons  have  not  continued  to  be  the  best, 
and  most  freshly  remembered,  during  the  hours  of  reflection 
and  repose  ?  Things  that  we  reason  upon  are  not  those 
which  have  greatest  hold  upon  our  actions  ;  the  simple  offices 
of  veneration,  obedience,  and  thankfulness,  are  those  that 
form  the  happy  and  dutiful  life. 

Dr.  Johnson  ever  thought  tenderly  of  his  mother.  "You 
frighted  me,"  he  writes  to  Miss  Porter,  "with  your  black 
wafers,  for  I  had  forgot  you  were  in  mourning,  and  was 
afraid  your  letter  had  brought  me  ill  news,  of  my  mother, 
whose  death  is  one  of  the  few  calamities  on  ivhich  I  think 

*  The  Rev.  Richard  Cecil  writes  :  "I  was  much  indebted  to  my 
Mother  for  her  truly  wise  and  judicious  conduct  toward  me,  when  I 
first  turned  from  my  vanity  and  sin."  And  of  his  other  parent :  "  In 
all  my  companions — no  Father  !  In  all  my  conversations,  none  like 
him  !  In  all  my  doubts — no  oracle  like  him  !  In  all  my  fears  and 
anxieties — no  refuge  like  his  generosity !  I  feel  his  loss,  though  sur- 
rounded with  the  prodigaHty  of  liberality  and  kindness." 

I    Huijh  James  Rose. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  21 

loith  terror.^'  His  letters  to  his  beloved  mother,  just  pre- 
vious to  her  decease,  are  the  most  affecting-specimens  of  filial 
love  that  could  possibly  be  written  :  and  his  thankfulness  to 
all  those  who  waited  on  her  is  expressed  in  the  most  touch- 
ing terms  of  gratitude  and  regard.  After  her  decease,  we 
may  be  sure  that  his  thoughts  were  identical  with  those  ad- 
dressed some  years  previously  to  his  friend  (Mr.  Elphinston) 
on  the  loss  of  a  mother,  where  he  says,  "  I  can  not  forbear 
to  mention,  that  neither  reason  nor  revelation  denies  you  to 
hope  that  you  may  increase  her  happiness  by  obeying  her 
precepts  ;  and  that  she  may,  in  her  present  state,  look  with 
pleasure  upon  every  act  of  virtue  to  which  her  instructions 
or  example  have  contributed."  He  holds  this  to  be  a  pleas- 
ing, though  not  important  opinion,  to  those  who  are  acting 
under  the  immediate  eye  of  God,  which,  of  course,  is  the 
supreme  idea  that  should  influence  our  conduct :  and  who 
can  tell  in  what  degree  this  hope  of  maternal  cognizance  may 
not  have  guided  her  son,  not  only  in  that  great  work  (his 
Dictionary)  of  which  it  is  recorded,  "  that  he  has  quoted  no 
author  whose  writings  had  a  tendency  to  hurt  sound  relig- 
ion and  morality,"  but  also  in  his  numerous  other  writ- 
ings wherein  the  talent  displayed  is  not  their  chiefest  excel- 
lence. 

Well  is  it  when  we  have  rehgious  parents,  and  are  enabled 
to  obey  them  :  but  not  less  blessed  is  he  who  can  conduct 
himself  without  frowardness  to  the  less  virtuous.  That  is  a 
beautiful  passage  in  one  of  the  letters  of  Pliny  the  younger, 
wherein  he  speaks  of  Pompeius  Quinctianus  in  these  admi- 
rable terms  :  "  How  open  was  his  countenance — how  modest 
his  conversation — how  equally  did  he  temper  gravity  with 
gayety — how  fond  was  he  of  learning — how  judicious  his 
sentiments — how  dutiful  to  a  father  of  a  very  different 
character — and  how  happily  did  he  reconcile  filial  piety  to 
mflexible  virtue  ;  continuing  a  good  son,  without  forfeiting 
the  title  of  a  good  man  I"  Who  can  peruse  this  remarkable 
instance  of  heathen  virtue,  and  not,  in  many  situations  of  the 
moral  and  religious  hfe,  exercise  the  duties  of  forbearance  and 
benevolence  ? 

For  such  considerate  humanity  is  required  by  Christianity. 


22  DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

"Always  in  command  of  himself,"  it  is  said  of  the  Christian,* 
'*  in  order  to  preserve  his  heart  pure  and  without  reproach, 
he  feels  no  hatred  toward  sinners  :  he  regards  them  as  suffer- 
ing patients,  whose  body  oppresses  and  governs  the  soul :  he 
considers  them  as  insane  mortals,  whose  erring  minds  suggest 
to  them  a  false  good  as  their  aim,  or  select  a  false  means 
for  attaining  a  praiseworthy  and  useful  object.  Instead  of 
hating,  he  pities  them  ;   and  he  labors  to  enlighten  them  in 

diminishing  the  evils  of  error  and  ignorance He  desires 

to  effect  good,  but  not  with  the  view  of  a  recompense  ;  for 
if  he  desired  and  demanded  any  reward,  his  virtue  would  no 
longer  remain  virtue,  but  would  be  transformed  into  selfish- 
ness and  mercenary  calculation.  He  loves  virtue,  because  it 
is  divine ;  he  aspires  to  perfection,  because  his  Heavenly 
Father  is  perfect." 

For  a  season,  in  early  youth,  Dr.  Johnson  seems  to  have 
declined  in  religion  ;  and  this  declension  continued  until  his 
mind  was  impressed  by  reading  "  Law's  Serious  Call  to  a 
Holy  Life,"  at  Oxford  ;  which  book  he  took  up,  expecting  to 
find  it  dull,  after  the  manner  of  many  religious  books,  and 
perhaps  to  laugh  at  it.  "  But,"  he  says,  "  I  found  Law 
quite  an  overmatch  for  me  :  and  this  was  the  first  occasion 
of  my  thinking  in  earnest  of  religion,  after  I  became  capable 
of  rational  inquiry."  The  amiable  Bishop  Sandford  has  said, 
that  no  one  aids  the  devil's  cause  more  than  he  who  preaches 
a  dull  sermon  ;  and  surely  a  dull  book  on  religious  matters 
is  an  equal  evil.  Law's  book,  though  far  from  being  light 
or  entertaining,  is  written  in  an  interesting  manner,  for  there 
are  certain  characters  described,  and  many  of  his  sayings  and 
comparisons  are  of  great  force,  and  such  as  are  likely  to  strike 
the  attention,  and  leave  an  impression.  From  his  exhorta- 
tions to  charity  and  benevolence,  we  may  well  conjecture 
that  Dr.  Johnson  drew  many  a  lesson  which  we  find  reduced 
to  practice  throughout  his  life.f 

*  Hours  of  Meditation.  By  Heinrich  Zschokke,  p.  83.  The  object 
of  this  author,  as  he  states  in  his  preface,  is,  "  to  propagate  true  Chris- 
tianity by  reanimating  the  zeal  for  internal  and  domestic  devotion.' 

t  The  Rev.  Dr.  Maxwell  tells  us,  that  Dr.  Johnson  "  much  com- 
mended '  Law's  Serious  Call,'  which,  he  said,  was  the  finest  piece  of 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  23 

During*  even  a  portion  of  his  career  at  Oxford,  that  place 
so  awful  in  religious  aspect  and  solemnity,  and  the  college 
discipline  of  which  he  afterward  highly  extolled,  he  appears 
not  to  have  been  sufficiently  under  the  mild  restraint  of  re- 
ligion, for  we  are  told  that  he  was  often  seen  lounging  at 
the  college  gate,  keeping  others  from  their  studies,  if  not  in- 
citing them  to  rebellion  against  the  collegiate  authorities. 
And  when  Dr.  Adams,  the  Principal  of  Pembroke  College, 
told  Boswell,  what  a  happy  fellow  Johnson  was  when  there, 
and  how  loved  and  caressed  by  all  :  "Oh,  sir,"  replied  Dr, 
Johnson,  on  being  told  this,  "  I  was  mad  and  violent.  It 
was  bitterness,  which  they  mistook  for  frolic.  I  was  miser- 
ably poor,  and  I  thought  to  fight  my  way  by  my  literature 
and  my  wit ;  so  I  disregarded  all  power  and  all  authority." 
In  the  year  previous  to  his  death  (1783),  in  a  conversation 
with  Mr.  Seward,  he  says,  "I  myself  was  for  some  years 
totally  regardless  of  religion.  It  had  dropped  out  of  my 
mind.  It  was  at  an  early  part  of  my  life.  Sickness  brought 
it  back,  and  I  hope  I  have  never  lost  it  since."  Brought  it 
hack ;  that  is,  a  thing  was  recovered  which  for  a  time  had 
been  lost.  The  principles  of  religion  instilled  by  his  mother, 
at  an  early  age,  were  revived  ;  for  he  adds,  "  A  man  who 
has  never  had  religion  before,  no  more  grows  religious  when 
he  is  sick,  than  a  man  who  has  never  learned  figures  can 
count  when  he  has  need  of  calculation."  That  there  is  gen- 
eral truth  in  this  observation,  any  clergyman,  accustomed  to 
parochial  visiting,  will  readily  perceive.  We  speak  of  a  man's 
being  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  religion  by  sudden  afflic- 
tion or  accident,  when  we  should  rather  say,  that  the  recol- 
lection of  it  is  renewed  in  his  mind.  The  religion  is  there,  as 
far  as  knowledge  is  concerned,  but  it  is  dormant ;  and,  in 
reality,  the  particular  illness  or  affliction  only  stirs  it  up,  and 
calls  out  more  efTectively,  that  which  has  been  long,  and 
perhaps  gradually  more  and  more,  almost  unawares,  received 

hortatory  theology  in  any  language."  This  book  is  published  by  the 
"  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,"  and  enjoys  a  most  ex- 
tensive circulation.  In  the  chapters  on  Humility  and  Universal  Love, 
with  its  general  encouragement  of  Devoutness  of  Mind,  we  can  see 
much  that  would  attract  the  attention  of  Dr.  Johnson. 


24  DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

into  the  heart.  Thus,  in.  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  a  man  in 
calamity  knows  well  on  whom  to  call,  he  knows  where  par- 
don is  to  be  found,  he  knows  Who  is  the  way,  the  truth,  and 
the  life  ;  and  he  quickly  shows  that  he  has  not  lived  in  a 
Christian  land  in  vain,  not  come  to  God's  church  in  vain, 
not  discoursed  with  Christain  people  in  vain  ;  but  that  there 
is  religious  knowledge  within  him,  which  only  requires  some 
earnest  impulse  to  summon  it  forth  into  the  light  of  day. 
The  beautiful  and  breathing  statue  is  in  the  rugged  rock  , 
it  only  requires  the  hand  of  the  sculptor  to  remove  the 
surrounding  rubbish,  and  expose  it  to  the  delighted  eye  of  man. 

That  Johnson  should  have  become  an  inciter  to  rebellion 
at  Oxford,  and  taken  pleasure  "in  vexing  the  tutors  and 
fellows,"  is  the  more  remarkable,  because  he  was  usually 
obedient  to  parental  authority.  He  has  mentioned,  that  he 
could  not  in  general  accuse  himself  of  undutifulness  to  his 
parents.  "Once,  indeed,"  he  said,  "I  was  disobedient:  I 
refused  to  attend  my  father  to  Uttoxeter  market.  Pride  was 
the  source  of  that  refusal,  and  the  remembrance  of  it  was 
painful.  A  few  years  ago  (but  a  few  before  his  death),  I 
desired  to  atone  for  this  fault.  I  went  to  Uttoxeter  in  very 
bad  weather,  and  stood  for  a  considerable  time  bareheaded 
in  the  rain,  on  the  spot  where  my  father's  stall  used  to  stand. 
In  contrition  I  stood,  and  hope  the  penance  was  expiatory." 
Whatever  we  may  think  of  this  mode  of  punishment,  a  mode 
recommended  by  the  law  of  the  land  more  than  by  religion, 
we  still  find  him  mindful  of  former  remissness,  and  doubtless, 
had  any  person  been  living  to  whom  he  owed  a  debt  of  duty, 
or  from  whom  he  should  have  sought  forgiveness,  that  living 
person  would  have  received  satisfaction  from  him  in  a  manner 
at  once  faultless  and  sincere. 

During  the  college  period  of  his  life,  we  may  assert  that 
his  religious  views  were  substantially  reformed.  And  at  this 
time  also  his  thirst  for  literature  was  great,  and  the  energy 
of  his  mind,  in  its  struggles  with  poverty  and  hereditary 
disease,  most  remarkable.  The  story  of  the  shoes  may  be 
passed  by,  as  not  thoroughly  authenticated  ;*  but  the  vehement 

*  Carlyle  seems  to  credit  this  story ;  and  if  it  be  true,  how  worthy 
his  comment!     "One  remembers  always,"  he  says,  "that  story  of 


DR.  JOHNSOxN'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  25 

yearning -of  his  soul,  incompatible  M-ilh  the  poorness  of  his 
purse,  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  soliloquy  he  was 
heard  to  utter  in  his  strong,  emphatic  voice  :  "  Well,  I  have 
a  mind  to  see  what  is  done  in  other  places  of  learning.  I'll 
go  and  visit  the  universities  abroad.  I'll  go  to  France  and 
Italy.  I'll  go  to  Padua.  And  I'll  mind  my  business.  For 
an  Atlienian  blockhead  is  the  worst  of  all  blockheads." 
With  a  desire  to  visit  all  universities,  when  he  could 
scarcely  maintain  a  residence  in  one,  he  must,  like  Goldsmith, 
have  set  out  to  traverse  the  continent  without  a  shillino-. 
His  father  was  soon  in  a  state  of  insolvency,  and  he  himself, 
in  fact,  was  compelled  to  leave  Oxford  without  a  degree,  ere 
long  to  become  an  usher  in  a  provincial  school,  and  next  to 
be  the  subject  of  the  following  laudable  advertisement  :  "At 
Edial,  near  Lichfield,  in  Staffordshire,  young  gentlemen  are 
boarded  and  taught  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  by 
Sajviijel  Johnson" — an  advertisement  which  secured  one  ac- 
complished and  faithful  friend,  David  Garrick,  but  which, 
as  Boswell  observes,  had  it  "appeared  after  the  publication  of 
his  London,  or  his  Rambler,  or  his  Dictionary,  how  would  it 
have  burst  upon  the  world  I  "  As  it  v/as,  Ave  must  look  upon 
"  the  largest  soul  in  all  England,  and  provision  made  for  it 
of  fourpence  halfpenny  a-day."^ 


the  shoes  at  Oxford  :  the  rough,  seamy-faced,  raw-boned  college  servi- 
tor, stalking  about  in  winter  season,  with  his  shoes  worn  out :  how  the 
charitable  Gentleman  Commoner  secretly  places  a  new  pair  at  his  door- 
and  the  raw-boned  servitor,  lifting  them,  looking  at  them  near,  with 
his  dim  eyes,  with  what  thoughts — pitches  them  out  of  the  window  ! 
Wet  feet,  mud,  frost,  hunger,  or  what  you  will ;  but  not  beggary :  we 
can  not  stand  beggary  :  Rude,  stubborn  self-help  here  :  a  whole  mass 
of  squalor,  rudeness,  confused  misery  and  want,  yet  of  nobleness  and 
raanfulness  withal.  It  is  a  type  of  the  man's  life,  this  pitching  away 
of  the  shoes.  An  original  man  ;'  not  a  second-hand,  borrowing  or  beg- 
ging man.  Let  us  stand  on  our  own  basis  at  any  rate  !  On  such  shoes  as 
we  ourselves  can  get.  On  frost  and  mud,  if  you  will,  but  honestly  on 
that."  (Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,  2d  Edit.  p.  28.)  When  Thomson, 
the  poet,  was  robbed  in  the  streets  of  London  of  his  "magazine  of  cre- 
dentials"' to  persons  of  consequence,  as  the  prime  note  of  his  poverty, 
Johnson  remarks:  "His  first  want  was  a  oair  of  shoes." — Life  of 
Thomson,  in  Lives  of  the  Poets. 
*  Cailyle. 

B 


26  DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

Henceforward,  we  never  find  him  swerving  from  his  relig- 
ious principles,  beyond   an  occasional  ebullition  of  temper,  or 
the  yielding  to  a  stray  temptation  ;   and,  as  he  himself  said 
most  truly,  a  fallible  being  will  fail  somewhere.      Perhaps 
the  most  trying  time  to  Johnson,  as  regards  the  purity  of  his 
moral  conduct,  must  have  been  that  which  passed  during  his 
first   acquaintance  with   Savage,   the  poet.      Savage  was  a 
man  who  had  seen  much  of  life  in  its  every  degree,  and  who 
possessed  a  vigorous  mind  and  captivating  power  of  conversa- 
tion, at  the  same  time  that  he  was  notoriously  profligate  and 
ungrateful,  as  appears  from  the  whole  tenor  of  his   life,  and 
his    peculiar   behavior   toward  Sir   Richard    Steele,  and  the 
Earl  of  Tyrconnel.      With  this   man,  Johnson,  through  ex- 
treme poverty,  was  compelled  to  wander  whole  niglits  in  the 
street,  neither  of  them  being  able  to  pay  for  a  night's  lodg- 
ing ;   and,  at  this  time,   so  shabby  was  Johnson's   clothing, 
ihat  he  did  not  choose  to  appear  in  public  on  some  occasions. =* 
It  does  not,  however,  appear,  although  Boswell  suggests  sus- 
picion,   that  he  gave  way  to   the  licentious  temptations  of 
Savage  ;   but,  if  he  did  yield  for  a  time,  his  natural  and  re- 
ligious rectitude  of  conduct  w^as   soon  regained.      And  who 
does  not  perceive  the  power  of  his  religion,  which  could  pre- 
serve him  comparatively  unscathed  amid  the  scenes  presented 
to  his  view,  and  which,  ere  long,  rescued  him  completely  from 
liability  to   fall   into  any   dangers   they  may   have   offered; 
while,  on  the  other   hand,  poor    Savage,  with  great  natural 
abilities,  void  of  all  religious  guidance,  never  rose  superior  to 
sensual  indulgence,  but  to  the  very  last  continued  notorious 
for  every  depravity  and  meanness  that  could  characterize  the 
vicious  career  of  an  evil  and  ungoverned  heart.     Dr.  Johnson, 
in  the  greatness  of  his  disposition,  and  ever  mindful  of  the 
misery  of  Savage,  and   the    peculiar    aggravations   that  tor- 
mented his  very  soul,  afterward  bestowed  as  much  diligence 
in  writing  his  memoir,  as  in  constructing  that  of  more  cele- 
brated poets  ;    and  after  truly  relating  the  scenes  of  wretched- 
ness  and   crime  with  which    Savage   was  conversant,   thus 

*  It  was  at  the  time  that  he  published  the  Life  of  Savage,  we  have 
the  story  of  the  plate  of  victuals  being  sent  to  him  behind  the  screen, 
on  account  of  the  shabbiness  of  his  dress.     See  Croker's  lasit  edit.  n.  49. 


DR.  .JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  27 

charitably  concludes  :  "  They  are  no  proper  judges  of  his 
conduct,  who  have  slumbered  away  their  time  on  the  down 
of  plenty  ;  nor  will  any  wise  man  presume  to  say,  '  Had  I 
been  in  Savage's  condition,  I  should  have  lived  or  written 
better  than  Savage  ;'  "  but  as  a  warning  to  all  men  of  high 
attainments,  he  reminds  such,  "Nothing  will  supply  the  want 
of  prudence  ;  and  that  negligence  and  irregularity,  long  con- 
tinued, will  make  knowledge  useless,  wit  ridiculous,  and 
genius  contemptible." 

Savage  was  not  an  infidel,  though  he  lived  the  life  of  a 
man  careless  of  futurity,  and  in  one  of  his  last  letters  makes 
mention  of  thankfulness  to  the  Almighty.  But  Johnson  was 
a  believer,  with  all  the  integrity  and  faithfulness  that  be- 
comes one  ;  and,  from  the  influence  which  Christian  precept 
held  over  his  own  mind,  he  could  not  imagine  that  goodness 
could  really  exist  but  in  union  with  Christian  faith.  "  No 
honest  man  could  be  a  Deist,"  he  said,  "for  no  man  could  be 
so  after  a  fair  examination  of  the  proofs  of  Christianity  ;"  and 
when  Hume  was  talked  of,  he  added,  that  Hume  had  men- 
tioned to  a  clergyman,  that  he  had  never  read  the  New 
Testament  with  attention.  Hume,  with  all  his  sneerino-  and 
sarcastic  propensity,  was,  we  may  assert,  an  honest  man  ; 
and  his  well-known  saying,  that  if  he  could  believe  in  Chris- 
tianity, he  should  stop  every  man  in  the  street  to  tell  him  of 
his  danger,  goes  far  to  invest  him  with  the  character  of  in- 
tegrity ;  and  it  is  a  fact  that  can  not  be  denied,  that  we  do 
find  men  capable  of  the  purest  moral  conduct  apart  from  any 
belief  in  any  particular  religion.  Although  man,  on  the 
whole,  is  radically  wanting  in  goodness,  yet  we  all  enter  into 
negotiations  with  him,  as  though  he  were  perfectly  moral  and 
trustworthy,  and  we  are  surprised  and  angered  when  he  prac 
tices  fraud  or  treachery  toward  us;  and  yet,  if  he  were 
wholly  given  up  to  the  dominion  of  an  evil  spirit,  what  could 
we  expect  otherwise  in  all  his  transactions,  when  we  had  no 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  renewed  heart  within  him  ? 
Still,  if  a  man  be  utterly  irreligious,  that  is,  be  an  atheist, 
and  disbeliever  of  a  future  life,  there  can  be  no  hold  on  that 
man — he  can  only  have  the  fear  of  society,  as  leavened  by 
Christianity  before  his  eyes  ;  when,  on  the  contrary,  what  a 


28  DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE. 

superior  motive  has  he  for  rectitude  of  life,  who  firmly  believes 
that  God's  punishment  will  reach  even  where  men  can  not 
detect,*"  that  every  word  and  action  is  noted  by  an  Almighty 
eye  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  and  that  the  destiny  of 
eternal  happiness  or  wretchedness  depends  upon  the  trial  af- 
forded to  him  in  this  present  life.  There  are  cases  of  hypoc- 
risy among  us,  but  the  instances  of  religious  sincerity,  and  its 
paramount  influence  over  the  whole  conduct  of  life,  we  may 
readily  believe  to  be  innumerable. 

In  somewhat  the  same  category  with  Hume,  Johnson 
placed  Foote,  the  facetious  actor,  if  "he  were  really  an  infidel. 
"  If  he  be  an  infidel  I"  he  said,  in  answer  to  Boswell's  ques- 
tion, "  he  is  an  infidel,  as  a  dog  is  an  infidel ;  that  is  to  say, 
he  has  never  thought  upon  the  subject."  With  Rousseau's 
character  he  had  no  patience  ;  "  Rousseau,  sir,  is  a  very  bad 
man.  I  M^ould  sooner  sign  a  sentence  for  his  transportation, 
than  that  of  any  felon  who  has  gone  from  the  Old  Bailey 
these  many  years,"  On  Voltaire,  and  on  all  infidel  or  im- 
moral writers,  he  would  have  passed  the  same  judgment. 

When  speaking  of  infidelity,  we  usually  mean  those  per- 
sons who  disbelieve  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Doubtless,   a  Deist  may  be  a  very  goo'd   man  ;  f    and  such 

*  Mallet,  who  was  a  great  free-thinker,  used  on  all  occasions  to 
advance  his  sentiments,  until,  we  are  told,  the  inferior  domestics  in  his 
house  became  as  able  disputants  as  the  heads  of  the  family.  The 
servant  who  waited  at  table  being  thoroughly  convinced  that  for  any  of 
his  misdeeds  he  should  have  no  account  to  vender  hereafter,  was  resolved 
to  profit  by  the  doctrine,  and  made  off  with  the  plate,  and  many  things 
of  value.  He  was  overtaken,  and  brought  before  his  master  and  some 
select  friends.  At  first,  the  man  was  sullen,  and  would  answer  no 
questions  put  to  him  ;  but,  being  urged  to  give  a  reason  for  his  infa- 
mous behavior,  he  resolutely  said,  "  Sir,  I  have  heard  you  so  often  talk 
of  the  impossibility  of  a  future  state,  and  that  after  death  there  was  no 
reward  for  virtue,  or  punishment  for  vice,  that  I  was  tempted  to  commit 
the  robbery."  "Well,  but  you  rascal,"  replied  Mallet,  "had  you  no 
fear  of  the  gallows?"  "Sir,"  said  the  fellow,  looking  sternly  at  his 
master,  "  what  is  that  to  you,  if  I  had  a  mind  to  venture  that !  You 
had  removed  my  greatest  terrors;  why  should  I  fear  the  lesser?" — 
Memoirs  of  Garrick^  vol.  ii.  p.  60. 

t  Because  a  Deist  may  be  a  good  man,  let  it  not  be  thought  that 
any  encouragement  is  held  out  to  a  profession  of  deism.  There  is  a 
wide  diflference  between  the  case  of  a  heathen  who  has  never  heard  of 
Christ,  and  a  man  in  a  Christian  country  who  willfully  rejects  evidences 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  EARLY  RELIGIOUS  LIFE.  29 

were  some  of  the  philosophers  of  ancient  times,  and  such 
were  many  of  the  Jews,  who  could  not  discern  the  person  or 
times  of  the  Christ  in  the  book  that  guided  their  moral  and 
humane  life.  But  whether  an  utter  infidel  can  exist,  one 
who  beholds  all  the  orderly  arrangement  of  the  celestial  and 
terrestrial  systems,  and  yet  can  discern  no  power  more  than 
human,  is  a  problem  indeed.  Hannah  More  makes  mention 
of  the  only  atheist  (poor  Ayrey)  she  ever  knew.  "  He  was 
an  honest,  good-natured  man  (this  supports  our  theory),  which 
certainly,"  she  observes,  "  he  should  not  have  been  on  his 
principles."  Yet  he  was  not  without  a  belief  "  He  was  a 
fatalist,  and  if  he  snuffed  the  candle,  or  stirred  the  fire,  or 
took  snuff,  he  solemnly  protested  he  was  compelled  to  do  it." 
What  made  him  believe  in  this  necessity  of  things  ?  must  be 
our  question.  She  adds,  "  He  always  confessed  he  was  a 
coward,  and  had  a  natural  fear  of  pain  and  death,  though  he 
knew  he  should  be  as  if  he  never  had  been."  This  was,  in- 
deed, in  him,  cowardly  and  irrational,  and  quite  opposed  in 
principle  to  the  fear  of  death  which  a  Christian  may  enter- 
tain ;  and  which  Dr.  Johnson,  himself,  did  with  reason  hold. 
However,  all  was  well  with  Johnson  at  the  last.  "  God's 
purpose  shall  stand,"  said  the  devout  Charles  Simeon  ;  "  but 
our  liability  to  fall  and  perish  is  precisely  the  same  as  ever  it 
was  :  our  security,  as  far  as  it  relates  to  him,  consists  in 
faith,  and  as  far  as  it  relates  to  ourselves,  it  consists  in  year."  ^ 
Johnson  and  Simeon  were  diverse  in  character,  but  in  this 
feeling  they  agreed. 

internal  and  external,  the  disbelief  of  which  is  sometimes  attributable 
(like  Blanco  White's)  to  defective  mental  constitution,  but  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases  to  vitiated  moral  feeling,  and  a  dislike  of  the  hum- 
bling doctrines  of  the  Cross.  An  article  in  No.  CLXXXII.  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review^  entitled  "  Reason  and  Faith :  their  Claims  and 
Conflicts,''  may  be  perused  with  much  advantage  by  the  Skeptic  or 
Rationalist. 

*  Memoirs  of  Rev.  Charles  Simeon,  p.  395.     3d  edition. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HIS     RELIGION. 

After  this  negative  proof  of  Johnson's  religion,  let  us 
turn  with  more  pleasure  to  the  positive.  "  Christianity," 
he  wrote,  "is  the  highest  perfection  of  humanity;  and  as  no 
man  is  good,  but  as  he  wishes  the  good  of  others,  no  man 
can  be  good  in  the  highest  degree,  who  wishes  not  to  others 
the  largest  measures  of  the  greatest  good  I  Thus,  though 
the  Deist  may  be  good,  and  zealously  wish  the  good  of  others, 
yet  the  Christian,  who  believes  himself  to  be  in  possession  of 
the  greatest  good,  should  be  the  earnest  distributor  of  it  to 
others  :  in  short,  how  can  a  man  be  good,  who  keeps  back 
from  other  men  that  which  he  feels  to  be  the  highest  perfec- 
tion of  humanity  ?"  This  sentiment,  which  had  peculiar 
reference  to  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  Gaelic  lan- 
guage, we  may  well  suppose  capable  of  an  universal  applica- 
tion, and  hence  it  binds  every  believer  in  Christianity  to  the 
duty  of  propagating,  at  home  and  abroad,  the  doctrines  and 
tenets  of  that  most  holy  religion.  And  before  a  man  can  effect- 
ually do  this,  he  must  himself  be  well  versed  in  the  doctrine, 
and  exercised  in  the  practice  of  religion  ;  and,  perhaps,  few 
men  could  render  a  better  answer  for  the  faith  that  is  in  them 
than  Dr.  Johnson.  He,  like  Addison,  had  examined  the 
matter  deeply,  and  made  up  his  mind  with  resolution  ;  and 
Addison  tells  us,  that  when  once  we  have  canvassed  a  subject 
in  all  it  bearings,  and  come  to  a  jnst  conclusion,  let  not  ob- 
jections afterward  drive  us  from  that  conclusion,  but  let  us, 
if  we  have  not  our  arguments  ready  to  our  mind  at  the  time, 
recur  to  that  period  when  we  did  prove  all  things,  and  re- 
solved to  hold  fast  that  which  we  then,  after  our  best  en- 
deavor, accounted  to  be  the  truth.  When  Johnson  was  told 
that  Goldsmith  (and  where  is  an  instance  of  a  man's  conduct 
being  in  greater  contrast  with  his  writings,  the  one  so  care- 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION.  31 

less,  the  6ther  so  careful?)  had  said — "As  I  take  my  shoes 
from  the  shoemaker,  and  my  coat  from  the  tailor,  so  I  take 
my  religion  from  the  priest ;"  he  answered,  "  Sir,  he  knows 
nothing,  he  has  made  up  his  mind  about  nothing."  Johnson 
was  the  last  man,  notwithstanding  his  reverence  for  the  cler- 
ical character,  and  for  the  teaching  of  the  church,  to  take 
his  religion  from  the  priest :  no,  his  great  mind  must  invest- 
igate the  matter,  he  must  be  convinced  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  and  then  he  would  bow  his  head,  with  feelings 
of  awe  and  satisfaction,  before  the  Christian  instructor,  who, 
in  accordance  with  Goldsmith's  admiration  in  a  more  delibe- 
rate season,  would  not  seek  to  maintain  his  sway 

"By  doctrines  fashion'd  to  the  varying  hour." 

That  his  faith  and  practice  were,  in  all  essential  respects, 
thoroughly  Christian,  it  may  seem  impertinent  to  prove  before 
the  minds  of  those  who  are  well  acquainted  with  the  opin- 
ions and  character  of  Dr.  Johnson  ;  but  alas,  some  there  are 
who,  through  ignorance,  are  ready  to  depreciate  both  the  tenets 
and  the  motives  of  the  man,  and  to  look  upon  him,  as  others 
have  imagined  him  to  be  in  literature  and  in  society,  as  a 
sort  of  bear  and  bigot,  whose  failings  were  so  great,  that  his 
virtues  need  not  be  regarded.  This  is  the  fanaticism  of  in- 
considerate and  ignorant  persons  ;  and  little  do  men  consider 
the  hurt  that  they  cause  to  religion,  when  they  would  repre- 
sent Shakspeare  as  an  unbeliever,  or  Johnson  as  not  strictly 
Christian  ;  that  is,  not  orthodox  according  to  their  self-as- 
sumed notions  of  orthodoxy.  The  old  hackney-coachmen  of 
London  were  exposed  to  a  penalty  for  not  having  a  check- 
string,  but  no  law,  until  some  time  after,  was  made  to  oblige 
them  to  take  hold  of  such  check-string.  Alas  I  in  weightier 
matters  we  have  check-strings  provided,  but  we  act  as  the 
h  ackney-  coachmen . 

And  what  was  his  profession  in  the  article  of  faith  ?  He 
firmly  believed  that  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  was  a  sacrifice 
for  the  sins  of  mankind.  At  one  time.,  Boswell  writes,^  "  I 
spoke  to  him  of  the  satisfaction  of  Christ.  He  said  his  no- 
tion was,  that  it  did  not  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  world :  but, 

*  In  the  Tour  to  tho  Hebrides. 


3-2  DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION. 

by  satisfying  the  divine  justice,  by  showing  that  no  less  than 
the  Son  of  God  suffered  for  sin,  it  showed  to  men  the  hein- 
ousness  of  it,  and  therefore  rendered  it  unnecessary  for  divine 
vengeance  to  be  exercised  against  sinners,"  &c.  There  seems 
to  be  some  confusion  or  contradiction  here,  for  surely,  if  divine 
veno-eance  be  satisfied,  and  God  be  reconciled  to  man  by  the 
death  of  Christ,  then  is  that  death  a  satisfaction  and  atone- 
ment for  sin.  Again,  Boswell  writes  :  "  I  said,  the  great 
article  of  Christianity  is  the  revelation  of  immortality.  John- 
son admitted  it  was."  Here  we  must  remark  that  Boswell 
describes  himself  as  sounding  Johnson  upon  particular  subjects 
but  he  gives  us  not  Johnson's  answers  in  Johnson's  own  words 
Therefore  Croker,  the  indefatigable  editor  of  the  Life  of  John 
son  w^arns  us,  not  to  trust  too  much  to  Boswell's  colloquial 
phrases  on  such  vital  points,  which  appear  to  be  sanctioned 
by  the  admission  of  Johnson  ;  and  Boswell  himself  says  on 
the  former  opinion  quoted  above,  "  What  Dr.  Johnson  now 
delivered  was  but  a  temporary  opinion,  for  he  afterioard 
was  fully  convinced  of  the  propitiatory  sacrifice,  as  I  shall 
show  at  large  in  my  future  work."  And  in  his  future  work 
(the  life  of  Johnson)  we  find  Dr.  Johnson  deliberately  stating 
his  opinions  on  original  sin,  and  on  the  atonement.  Let 
these  short  extracts  suffice,  for  nothing  is  given  contradictory 
to  them.  "  The  great  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  mankind  was 
offered  at  the  death  of  the  Messiah,  who  is  called  in  Scrip- 
ture '  the  lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.'"  Again  he  says — "Tlie  peculiar  doctrine  of  Chris- 
tianity is  that  of  an  universal  sacrifice  and  perpetual  propi- 
tiation. Other  prophets  only  proclaimed  the  will  and  the 
threatenings  of  God  :  Christ  satisfied  his  justice."  In  one 
of  his  last  prayers,  he  beseeches  the  Almighty — "  Make  the 
death  of  thy  Son  Jesus  effectual  to  my  redemption  ;"  and 
in  other  prayers  he  alludes  to  the  satisfaction  of  Christ's 
death.  It  is  true,  that  Christ  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light  through  the  gospel  (2  Tim.  i.  10);  that  is,  has 
made  perfectly  certain  what  was  before  doubtful  to  the 
heathen,  and  not  clear  to  the  Israelites,  although  a  few  such 
as  Job  and  Cicero,  might  have  held  a  firm  persuasion  of  a 
future  life  ;  yet  this  is  not  the  leading  idea  of  Christianity, 
but  rather  the  great  fact  revealed  by  the  gospel  is  the  Atone- 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION.  33 

MENT,*  thfs  the  grand  gospel  tidings  which  should  be  preach- 
ed without  reserve  to  all  people.  Whosoever  believeth  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ  is  born  of  God  ;  this  was  the  article  of 
belief  ofiered  to  the  Jew — namely,  to  believe  that  Jesus 
whom  the  apostles  preached  was  really  the  Anointed  One  of 
God,  was  truly  the  antitype  of  the  prophecies  and  sacrifices; 
that  the  high-priest  entered  the  holy  of  holies  once  a  year 
with  blood  as  a  type  of  the  atonement;  and  that  now  "we 
have  a  great  High-Priest,  that  is  passed  into  the  heavens, 
Jesus  the  Son  of  God."  (Hebrews  iv.  14.)  The  man  who 
held  this  belief  was  born  of  God,  for  from  God  only  did 
these  prophecies,  and  the  ordinance  of  sacrifices,  come  :  and 
he  who  had  the  vail  removed  from  his  eyes,  so  as  to  discern 
the  great  secondary  intent  of  these  institutions,  to  him  the 
truth  was  made  known  by  God  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ — 
"  whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  he  a  propitiation  :"  "  the 
PROPITIATION /or  our  sins.''  (Rom,  iii.  25.     1  John  ii.  2.) 

Seeing  that  Dr.  Johnson  so  fully  believed  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  Atonement,  we  may  pass  over  his  orthodox  belief  in 
the  Trinity,  and  in  the  renewal  of  the  heart  of  man  by  the 
Holy  Spirit — doctrines  which  his  meditations  and  prayers 
show  to  have  been  held  by  him — and  proceed  to  the  practi- 
cal behavior  of  his  Christian  life.  And  first,  we  should,  in 
estimating  the  sincerity  of  a  man's  religious  profession,  ask, 
What  is  the  business  he  pursues,  and  how  does  he  conduct 
himself  in  his  common  dealings  with  his  fellow-men  ?  Let 
a  man  be  a  rich  banker  or  merchant,  or  be  a  plowman  or 
shoe-black,  the  question  is  of  vital  importance,  for  the  honesty 
and  fidelity  inculcated  by  our  religion  should  pervade  and  guide 
every  action  and  word  of  our  daily  negotiations  with  our  fel- 

*  Some  divines  would  feel  inclined  to  consider  the  Incarnation  as 
the  leading  idea  of  Christianity — for  this  is  "  the  mystery  of  godliness." 
It  is  difficult  to  give  prominence  to  any  chief  doctrine,  all  and  each  are 
so  important,  so  interwoven.  The  Atonement  is  the  doctrine  we 
most  immediately  cling  to,  for  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us 
from  all  sin;  yet  it  is  hardly  more  prominent  than  the  Resurrection 
OR  Intercession,  except  as  preliminary  and  prerequisite;  in  short  it 
is  the  foundation,  but  not  the  whole  building.  For  instruction  on 
the  first-mentioned  doctrine,  I  would  refer  my  readers  to  the  work  ol 
the  Rev  Henry  Wilberforce,  M.  A.,  entitled.  The  Doctrine  of  the  In- 
carnation of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.      Murray. 


34  DK.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION. 

low-creatures.  Better  is  it  to  have  little  profession  and  great 
performance  ;  as  the  son  who  told  his  father  that  he  would 
not  go  and  labor  in  the  field,  and  yet  went,  was  better  than 
he  who  said  he  would  go,  and  went  not  :  thus  in  vain  do 
richer  men  attend  at  church  or  tabernacle,  speak  in  the 
cause  of  religion  and  inscribe  their  names  on  subscription 
lists,  unless  in  the  ordinary  duties  of  life  they  hate  to  defraud 
the  fatherless,  the  widow,  or  any  man,  woman,  or  child 
whatever.  Vain  is  the  talking  of  plowman  or  artisan,  if 
when  the  master's  eye  is  not  on  them  they  turn  to  idleness, 
or  squander  time  or  money  which  should  be  devoted  to  the 
support  of  their  families,  and  to  the  aid  of  virtuous  princi- 
ples. Now  with  Dr.  Johnson  literature  was  a  business,  and 
in  its  pursuit  he  could  accumulate  or  reject  what  Scripture 
calls  "  good  works,"  for  a  man  is  to  be  judged  according  to 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  and  the  deeds  thus  done  are  most 
manifold  in  the  daily  occupation  of  man,  whatever  it  may 
be.  It  is  very  pleasing,  then,  to  observe,  that  in  Dr.  John- 
son's business  of  life  he  was  often  holy,  and  always  singularly 
harmless  and  undefiled.  Of  the  literature  with  which  he 
has  for  ever  enriched  the  British  store,  where  can  the  single 
page  be  pointed  out  that  would  tend  in  the  slightest  degree 
to  allure  the  mind  from  religion  ?  On  the  contrary,  how 
many  of  his  writings  are  replete  with  religious  counsel,  de- 
livered in  a  tone  of  exhortation  as  earnest  as  it  is  argument 
ative  I  To  mention  but  a  few,  let  us  read  in  the  "  Ram 
bier,"  of  which  Boswell  says,  "  In  no  writings  whatever  can 
be  found  more  hark  and  steel  for  the  mind,''  No.  7,  on  the 
Love  of  Retirement;  17,  on  the  Frequent  Contemplation 
of  Death  ;  50,  on  a  Virtuous  Old  Age  ;  54,  a  Deathbed, 
&c.  ;  110,  on  Repentance  ;  155,  175,  and  1  85  :  and  in  the 
"Idler,"  Nos.  4,  14,  41  (this  letter  should  be  read  with  54 
in  the  "  Rambler"  as  an  antidote  to  its  gloom),  43,  51,  52, 
58,  89,  and  96 — what  a  warning  in  this  last  for  the  youth 
of  our  land  I  let  us  attentively  read  these  papers,  and  we 
can  not  fail  to  imbibe  feelings  of  moral  fortitude,  patience, 
self-denial,  and  preparation  for  the  immortal  life.  And  yet 
to  writings  more  decidedly  religious  than  these  we  can  point, 
even  to  his  Prayers  and  Meditations,  and  to  Sermons  which 
bear  ample  internal  evidence  of  having  issued  from  his  pen. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION.  35 

Even  his  Dictionary  was  conceived  under  the  restraint  and 
guidance  of  rehgion  :  and  we  may  suppose  that  most  of  his 
hterary  labors,  hke  that  of  the  "  Pwambler,"  were  consecrated 
by  concise  and  hearty  prayer  ;  and  of  most  of  them  he  could 
assert,  as  he  said  of  the  "  Lives  of  the  Poets,"  "  Written  in 
such  a  manner  as  may  tend  to  the  promotion  of  piety."  No 
man  more  abhorred  those  whose  literary  exertions  were  spent 
in  pandering  to  the  vicious  inclinations  of  the  age,  and  in 
putting  bitter  for  sweet  and  sweet  for  bitter  ;  and  he  gives 
this  wholesome  monition  :  "Vice,  for  vice  is  necessary  to  be 
shown,  should  always  disgust  :  nor  should  the  graces  of  gayety 
or  the  dignity  of  courage  be  so  united  with  it,  as  to  reconcile 
it  to  the  mind.'"^  Againf  he  speaks  of  those  licentious 
writers  who  have  not  only  forsaken  the  paths  of  virtue,  but 
attempted  to  lure  others  after  them  :  "  They  have  smoothed 
the  road  of  perdition,  covered  with  flowers  the  thorns  of 
guilt,  and  taught  temptation  sweeter  notes,  softer  blan- 
dishments and  stronger  allurements  :"  and  he  concludes, 
"  But,  surely,  none  can  think  without  horror  on  that  man's 
condition,  who  has  been  more  wicked  in  proportion  as  he  had 
more  means  of  excelling  in  virtue,  and  used  the  light  im- 
parted from  heaven  only  to  embellish  folly,  and  shed  lustre 
upon  crimes."  Well  would  it  be,  if  the  writers  of  this  nine- 
teenth century  of  Christianity,  those  who  "set  fashion  on 
the  side  of  wickednebS."  who  recommend  every  evil  action 
by  associating  it  with  qualities  that  serve  to  engage  the 
atiections  and  attract  the  mind,  and  who  are  unsettling  the 
better  sentiments  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  middle 
and  poorer  classes  of  society,  and  luring  them  into  irrecover- 
able unhappiness — well  would  it  be  if  these  would  take  such 
sentences  of  the  wise,  and  great,  and  enduring  heroes  of  lite- 
rature seriously  to  heart,  and  henceforth  seek  only  to  advance 
the  moral  welfare  of  the  masses  of  society,  whose  approba- 
tion of  virtue  receives  strength  and  vigor  "  from  the  books 
they  read,  the  conversation  they  hear,  the  current  apphcation 
of  epithets,  the  general  turn  of  language,"!  &^c.,  and  toward 
whom  any  labors  adverse  to  morality,  and  hence  to  happi- 
ness and  tranquillity  of  mind,  are  positive  cruelty. 
*  Rambler,  No.  4.         t  Ibid.  No.  77.  t  Paley  on  the  Moral  Sense 


CHAPTER    IV. 

HIS     RELIGION. 

Dr.  Johnson's  habit  of  devout  prayer  must  have  exer- 
cised a  most  beneficial  influence,  not  only  on  his  literary 
efforts,  but  also  on  the  whole  tenor  of  his  life  ;  indeed,  but 
for  the  energy  of  his  religious  devotion  and  practice,  his  very 
existence  would,  perhaps,  have  been  wrecked  on  the  gloomy 
element  of  his  natural  constitution.  Every  good  gift  cometh 
from  God,  must  be  sought  of  God  ;  and  we  are  graciously 
assured  that,  from  the  humble  prayer  of  the  meek  and  rever- 
ent petitioner,  the  Almighty  will  not  turn  away.  On  every 
new  undertaking,  on  receiving  the  Sacrament  and  hearing 
of  sermons,  on  parting  with  friends,  and  in  all  assaults  of 
temptation  or  approaches  of  affliction,  we  find  him  using  and 
recommending  the  blessing  of  prayer.  When  he  accompanied 
Boswell  to  Harwich,  on  the  journey  of  the  latter  to  Holland, 
"  We  went  and  looked  at  the  church,"  is  Boswell's  record  ; 
**  and  having  gone  into  it,  and  walked  up  to  the  altar,  John- 
son, ivhose  'pietij  ivas  constant  and  fervent,  sent  me  to  my 
knees,  saying,  "  Now  that  you  are  going  to  leave  your  native 
country,  recommend  yourself  to  the  protection  of  your  Crea- 
tor, and  RedeEx^ier  :' "  and  with  v/hat  a  sterling  letter  was 
this  advice  followed  up,  wherein  he  writes,  "  You  will,  per- 
haps, wish  to  ask,  what  study  I  would  recommend.  I  shall 
not  speak  of  theology,  because  it  ought  not  to  be  considered 
as  a  question,  whether  you  shall  endeavor  to  know  the  will 
of  God."*  But  more  striking  are  his  short  memorandums 
of  prayer  with  his  poor  black  servant.  "Sunday,  17th. 
Prayed  with  Francis,  ivhicli  I  noiv  do  commonly,  and  ex- 
plained to  him  the  Lord's  Prayer."  His  letters  to  this  ser- 
vant, whom  he  always  addressed  as  "  Dear  Barber,"  (and  in 
his  address  to  no  male  being  did  Johnson  exceed  this  epithet), 

*  See  Croker's  latest  edition,  p.  162. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION.  37 

are  characteristic  of  the  affectionatencss  of  his  nature,  as 
well  as  of  its  humility  ;  for,  as  the  Persian  peasant,  who, 
when  elevated  from  his  hovel  to  the  palace  of  his  sovereign, 
kept  with  care  his  original  wooden  shoes,  so  was  Johnson 
ever  mindful  of  his  first  humble  station,  and  never  domi- 
neered over  the  poorest  or  most  unfortunate.  This  is  one  of  his 
letters  to  Francis  Barber,  whom  at  the  age  of  twenty-five 
years  he  had  put  to  school ;  and  the  whole  of  it  must  be 
given  to  show  the  tender  courtesy,  as  well  as  feeling  of  affec- 
tion, mingled  witli  due  caution  for  him,  in  which  he  addressed 
his  poor  negro  ;  in,  fact,  he  could  not  have  treated  a  lord 
with  more  respectful  regard  : 

"  Dear  Francis — I  am  at  last  sat  down  to  write  to  you, 
and  should  very  much  blame  myself  for  having  neglected  you 
so  long,  if  I  did  not  impute  that,  and  many  other  failings,  to 
want  of  health.  I  hope  not  to  be  so  long  silent  again.  I 
am  very  well  satisfied  with  your  progress,  if  you  can  really 
perform  the  exercises  which  you  are  set ;  and  I  hope  Mr. 
Ellis  does  not  suffer  you  to  impose  on  him,  or  on  yourself 
Make  my  compliments  to  Mr.  Ellis,  and  to  Mrs.  Clapp,  and 
Mr.  Smith. 

'•  Let  me  know  what  English  books  you  read  for  your 
entertainment.  You  can  never  be  wise  unless  you  love 
reading.  Do  not  imagine  that  I  shall  forget  or  forsake  you ; 
for  if,  when  I  examine  you,  I  find  that  you  have  not  lost 
your  time,  you  shall  want  no  encouragement  from  yours, 
affectionately, 

"  Sam.  Johnson." 

We  find  that  Johnson  never  would  allow  of  swearing,  or 
profane  expressions,  in  his  presence.  This  was  agreeable  to 
the  profound  sensations  of  awe  with  which  he  ever  contem- 
plated the  Supreme  Being,  and  which  have  been  remarked 
in  the  distinguished  Robert  Boyle,  and  other  men  of  great 
talent  and  genius.  On  one  occasion  Boswell  repeated  to 
him  a  smart  epigrammatic  song  of  his  own  composition, 
which  had  been  set  to  music  by  Mr.  Dibdin,  on  the  procura- 
tion   of   Garrick  ;    but,    because    the    words,    "Oh,    by   my 


33  DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION. 

soul  I"^  occurred  in  it,  Johnson  said,  "  It  is  very  well,  sir, 
but  you  should  not  swear."  Upon  which  Boswell  wisely 
altered  those  words  to  "  Alas,  alas  I"  Sir  John  Hawkins  in- 
forms us,  that  when  a  person  of  some  celebrity  was  using- 
many  oaths  in  his  conversation,  Johnson  said  :  "  Sir,  all  this 
swearing  will  do  nothing  for  our  story  ,  I  beg  you  will  not 
swear."  The  narrator  continued  to  swear  ;  Johnson  said, 
"  I  must  again  entreat  you  not  to  swear."  He  swore  again  : 
Johnson  quitted  the  room.  On  another  occasion,  at  Dr. 
Taylor's,  at  Ashbourne,  he  was  very  angry  with  a  gentleman 
farmer  who  swore  in  his  discourse,  and  reprimanded  him  in 
the  way  best  adapted  to  silence  a  vulgar  man.  Davies,  who 
wrote  the  Life  of  Garrick,  reminded  him  of  Mr.  Murphy,  a 
celebrated  actor,  having  paid  him  the  highest  compliment 
that  ever  was  paid  to  a  layman,  by  asking  his  2')aTclo7i  for 
repeating  some  oaths  in  the  course  of  telling  a  story.  Bos- 
well was  once  suggesting,  that  probably  more  gentleness  of 
manner  might  have  added  benefit  to  his  conversations  ;  "  No, 
sir,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  "  I  have  done  more  good  as  I  am. 
Obscenity  and  impiety  have  always  been  repressed  in  my 
company  !"  Boswell  added,  with  characteristic  withdrawal 
of  an  opinion,  "True,  sir;  and  that  is  more  than  can  be 
said  of  every  bishop.  Greater  liberties  have  been  taken  in 
the  presence  of  a  bishop,  though  a  very  good  man,  from  his 
being  milder,  and,  therefore,  not  commanding  such  awe." 
There  was  an  authority  about  Dr.  Johnson's  speech,  and  a 
readiness  always  to  extinguish  a  flippant  or  impertinent 
speaker,  that  must  often  have  stopped  the  utterance  of  a 
sentence,  and  consigned  many  a  conception  to  prudent  silence. 
We  are  told  also,  that  he  disapproved  of  introducing  Scrip- 
ture phrases  into  secular  discourse.  Boswell  thinks  this  a 
question  of  some  difficulty ;  and  that,  on  some  occasions,  a 
scriptural  expression,  like  a  highly  classical  phrase,  may  be 

=*  An  excellent  little  book  on  the  Ten  Commandments,  by  the  Vcn. 
Archdeacon  Vickers  (Rivingtons),  may  be  consulted  on  this  matter. 
Speaking  of  the  Third  Commandment,  he  says,  "  It  forbids  the  sin  of 
common  cursing  and  swearing  ;  and  this,  whether  the  sacred  name  of 
the  Loi'd  God  hini.sclf  is  made  use  of,  or  any  other  set  of  words ;  as, 
'By  my  life,'  'Upon  my  soul,'  or  any  such  expressions."  See  pages 
47  and  49. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION.  39 

used  ta  advantage.  May  we  not  ask,  whether  much  will 
not  depend  on  the  company,  and  on  the  nature  of  the  con- 
versation, in  which  it  is  used  ?  Generally  speaking,  it  would 
be  improper,  and,  as  regards  any  witty  or  light  allusion, 
utterly  reprehensible.  The  Scriptures  are  from  heaven  ; 
their  pages  are  those  of  holy  inspiration  ;  and  the  AVord  of 
God,  as  the  name  of  God,  should  only  be  uttered  by  mortal 
man  with  the  feelings  and  in  the  tone  of  sacred  reverence. 
They  are  different  from  the  tvorks  of  God,  which  we  treat 
of  in  common  parlance,  inasmuch  as  every  thing  around  and 
about  us  is  His  work  ;  and  not  to  speak  commonly  of  these, 
would  be  not  to  speak  at  all. 

In  the  "  Microcosm,"  a  well-known  Etonian  publication, 
issued  when  Canning  was  an  Eton  boy,  there  is  an  article 
written  by  Canning  himself,  in  which,  as  Hannah  More 
observes,  the  practice  of  common  swearing  "  is  treated  with 
a  vein  of  ridicule,  not  unworthy  of  Addison  in  his  happiest 
mood."  She  is  surprised  to  find  such  "  elegant  ridicule,  and 
well-supported  ironical  pleasantry"  in  a  youth,  but  she 
evidently  knew  not  who  the  youth  was  ;  and  herein  we  have 
a  striking  instance  of  "  the  boy  the  father  of  the  man." 
But  amid  all  Canning's  pleasant  ridicule,  undertaken  on  the 
principle^ 

"  Ridiculum  acri 
Fortius  ac  melius  magnas  pier um que  seeat  res," 

this  more  serious  reflection  occurs  :*  "  It  has  been  observed," 
he  writes,  "  by  some  ancient  philosopher,  or  poet,  or  moralist, 
(no  matter  which),  that  nothing  could  be  more  pernicious  to 
mankind  than  the  fulfilling  of  their  own  ivishes.  And,  in 
truth,  I  am  inclined  to  be  of  this  opinion  ;  for  many  a  friend 
of  mine,  many  a  fellow-citizen  of  this  lesser  world,  would,  had 
his  own  heedless  imprecations  on  himself  taken  effect,  long 
ere  this  have  groaned  under  the  complication  of  almost  every 
calamity  capable  of  entering  a  human  imagination.  And 
with  regard  to  the  world  at  large,  were  this  to  be  the  case,  I 
doubt  whether  there  would  be  at  the  present  time  a  leg,  or 
limb  of  any  kind,  whole  in  his  Majesty's  service."  He  then 
goes  on  to  tell  us  of  a  lieutenant  who  still  continued  to 
*  Vol.  i.  No.  11,  p.  14. 


40  DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION. 

execrate  his  eyes,  although  he  had  lost  one  of  them.  The 
worst  sin  that  attaches  to  swearing  is,  that  we  undeserved})'' 
make  the  Almighty  a  wholesale  condemner  of  mankind, 
whenever  any  displeasure  against  a  fellow-mortal,  or  ourselves, 
arises  in  our  own  minds  ;  and  this,  when  on  every  Sabbath- 
day,  in  the  service  of  the  Church  of  England,  we  are  ex- 
horted to  "  speak  good  of  His  name."  We  may  well 
imagine  how  repugnant  swearing  would  be,  in  this  light,  to 
the  ideas  Dr.  Johnson  entertained  of  the  beneficence  of  the 
Deity. 

Happily  the  speech  of  man  is  altered  since  Canning's  day  ; 
and  not  even  troopers  now  swear  without  reproach  or  re- 
buke. It  will  not  be,  we  may  safely  prophesy,  the  universal 
language  contemplated  by  Bishop  Wilkins ;  neither  need 
another  Hibernian  divine  arise  to  tell  us,  more  patricB,  that 
"  the  little  children  that  could  neither  speak  nor  walk,  run 
about  the  streets  blaspheming."  No,  the  danger  is  quite  in 
the  other  extreme. 

And  though  a  distinction  should  ever  be  made  between 
the  comparative  demerits  of  the  two  extremes — between  the 
crime  of  the  blasphemer  and  the  error  of  him  whose  reverence 
of  God's  name  restrains  him  from  a  lawful  oath  ;  yet  to  this 
latter  his  error  should  be  pointed  out,  and  he  should  be  told 
that  his  misconstruction  of  scriptural  texts  may  be  as  glaring 
as  it  is  conscientious.  Thus  it  will  be  better  to  educate  for 
the  right,  rather  than  to  legislate  for  the  wrong  view.  If 
legislation  is  to  be  guided  by  the  private  judgment  of  persons 
on  texts  of  Scripture,  the  question  may  well  be  asked.  Where 
shall  we  stop  ?  It  is  well  known  that  a  sect  has  arisen 
which  refused  to  participate  in  any  kind  of  labor,  because 
our  Lord  said.  Labor  not  for  the  meat  that  iierisheth  ;  and 
others  might  refuse  to  enter  a  court  of  law  at  all,  because 
St.  Paul  has  said,  Now  there  is  utte7iy  a  fault  among  you^ 
because  ye  go  to  law  one  with  another.  And  yet  the  words, 
Swear  not  at  all  (Matt.  v.  34),  no  more  mean  that  no  oath 
is  to  be  taken,  than  the  words.  Labor  not,  mean  that  no 
labor  is  to  be  done.  Bishop  Sanderson  and  Archbishop 
Newcome  show  that  the  Apostle's  words  have  nothing  to  do 
with  judicial  swearing,  but  are  directed  solely  against  rash 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION.  41 

and  angry  oaths,  which  the  Jews  were  in  the  habit  of  utter- 
ing in  common  conversation.  And  this  must  be  the  case,  or 
the  Apostle  Paul  would  contradict  his  Lord  ;  for  it  is  written 
in  Hebrews  vi.  IG,  Aji  oatli  for  conjinnatioii  is  to  tJtem  an 
end  of  all  strife.  And  St.  Paul  irequently  called  God  to 
witness  the  truth  of  his  assertions,  as  may  be  seen  in 
Romans  i.  9,  and  also  ix.  1  ;  2  Cor.  i.  18  and  23  ;  Gal.  i. 
20  ;  1  Thess.  ii.  5.  In  Deut.  vi.  13,  we  read,  Thou  shalt 
fear  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  serve  hwi,  and  sivear  by  his 
name;  and  in  Heb.  vi.  13,  St.  Paul  says.  When  God 
made  iwomise  to  Abraham,  because  he  could  sivear  by  no 
greater,  lie  sware  by  himself.  Let  us  say,  that  oaths  should 
be  few,  and  always  solemnly  administered,  or  they  will  not 
be  reverenced  ;  but  we  have  not  a  tittle  of  Scripture  that 
would  serve  to  warrant  their  utter  abolition. 

Many  other  points  of  importance  in  his  religious  character 
might  be  advanced,  which  show  that  religion  held  a  para- 
mount and  constant  sway  over  that  conscience  which  the 
Almighty  has  placed  in  the  breast  of  all  men,  to  be  regulated 
and  guided  by  the  enlightenment  of  his  holy  Word.  Thus 
his  self-examination  was  prominent — a  duty  from  which  men 
shrink  as  regards  the  soul,  in  the  same  degree  that  so  many 
are  fearful  to  be  informed  by  the  skillful  physician  of  the  ex- 
tent of  growing  disease  in  the  body.  We  find  by  many  ex- 
pressions in  letters,  and  in  conversation,  that  he  often  dared 
to  look  into  himself,  and  retired  from  the  review  of  life  with 
those  humbled  feelings  which  must  mortify  any  tendency  or 
temptation  to  self-glorification  in  any  true  Christian.  How 
careful  was  he  as  to  forming  rash  resolutions  of  conduct, 
knowing  the  weakness  that  is  in  man !  How  he  censured  a 
book  written  by  Lord  Kames,  in  which  it  was  asserted  that 
virtue  was  natural  to  man  !  "  After  consulting  our  own 
hearts,"  he  said,  "  and  tvith  cdl  the  helps  ive  have,  we  find 
how  few  of  us  are  virtuous  ;"  and  he  added,  that  all  man- 
kind knew  Lord  Kames's  saying  not  to  be  true.  How  he 
lamented  that  "  all  serious  and  religious  conversation  was 
banished  from  the  society  of  men  ;"  how  he  ever  thought  that 
we  should  be  "making  the  concerns  of  eternity  the  govern- 
ing principle  of  our  lives  ;"   and  "  he  reproved  me,"  says  the 


42  DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION. 

Rev.  Dr.  Maxwell,  <'  for  saying  grace  without  mention  of 
the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ :"  a  name  which  Croker 
thinks  too  awful  to  be  introduced  amid  the  levities  of  such  a 
time  ;  but,  if  we  may  introduce  the  name  of  the  Creator, 
surely  we  may  that  of  the  Redeemer  also.  How  careful 
M'as  he  to  avoid  ostentation  !  and  once,  when  he  was  asked 
the  reason  of  laying  aside  a  watch  which  had  the  words  Ni'^ 
epx^TttL  engraved  on  the  dial-plate,  he  said,  "  It  might  do 
very  well  upon  a  clock  which  a  man  keeps  i?i  his  closet  ; 
but  to  have  it  upon  his  watch,  which  he  carries  about  with 
him  and  which  is  ofie?i  looked  at  by  others,  might  be  censur- 
ed as  ostentatious."  He  probably  cared  not  for  what  others 
thought,  but  felt  conscious  in  himself  that  such  was  ostenta- 
tion, and  a  snare  that  might  gradually  lead  to  a  betrayal  of 
humility.  And  with  this  feeling  he  never  wished  to  appear 
singular,  but  in  all  common  and  harmless  things  to  act  in 
conformity  with  the  world  around  him.  "  No  person,"  he 
said,  "  goes  under-dressed  till  he  thinks  himself  of  cojise- 
querice  enough  to  forbear  carrying  the  badge  of  his  rank 
upon  his  back."  How  true  is  this — what  pride  may  lurk 
in  the  old  hat,  or  ordinary  coat — how  many  persons  who 
have  become  rich,  pride  themselves  on  not  being  fine  I  In 
answer  to  arguments  urged  by  Quakers,  &c.,  he  exclaimed, 
"  Oh,  let  us  not  be  found,  when  our  Master  calls  us,  ripping 
the  lace  off  our  waistcoats,  but  the  spirit  of  contention  from 
our  souls  and  tongues !  Let  us  ajl  conform  in  outward  cus- 
toms, which  are  of  no  consequence,  to  the  manners  of  those 
among  whom  we  live,  and  desjoise  such  paltry  distinctions. 
Alas  I"  he  continued,  "  a  man  who  can  not  get  to  heaven  in 
a  green  coat,  will  not  find  his  way  thither  the  sooner  in  a 
gray  one  I"  This  is  all  good  common  sense — and  those  who 
wish  to  see  the  matter  concerning  gay  apparel  more  fully 
discussed  will  do  well  to  read  the  controversy  between  pious 
Hervey  and  good  John  Wesley,  in  which  the  argument  j^^'o 
and  con  is  well  nigh  exhausted.  But  in  his  charities  and 
humanities  of  every  kind,  we  find  him  seeking  to  avoid  the 
observation  of  the  world,  and  literally  doing  his  alms  in 
secret. 

No  man  could  be  more  convinced  of  the  protection  of  God, 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION.  43 

and  the  certainty  of  the  future  hfe.  To  Miss  Porter  he 
writes  :  "  We  have  one  Protector,  who  can  never  be  lost  but 
by  our  own  fault."  Speaking-  of  the  difficulty  of  attaining 
to  literary  fame  :  "  Ah,  sir,  that  should  make  a  man  think 
of  securing  happiness  in  another  world,  which  all  who  try 
sincerely  for  it  may  obtain.  In  comparison  of  that,  how 
little  are  all  other  things  I"  To  Bos  well  he  writes,  after 
having  been  at  Lichlield,  where  he  witnessed  what  he  calls 
"  a  collection  of  misery,"  one  friend  lame,  another  paralytic, 
another  blind,  and  another  deaf:  "  Such  is  life.  Let  us  try 
to  pass  it  well,  whatever  it  be,  for  there  is  surely  some- 
thing beyond  it.'"  To  Mrs.  Thrale,  on  the  loss  of  her  child, 
how  mindful  of  our  frailness,  how  consoling  to  the  mother  I 
"  He  is  gone,  and  we  are  going  I  ,  .  .  Pwemember,  first,  that 
your  child  is  happy  ;  and  then,  that  he  is  safe,  not  only  from 
the  ills  of  this  world,  but  from  those  more  formidable  dangers 
which  extend  their  mischief  to  eternity.  You  have  brought 
into  the  world  a  rational  being  :  have  seen  him  happy  during 
the  little  life  that  has  been  granted  to  him  ;  and  can  have 
no  doubt  but  that  his  happiness  is  now."  What  mother 
will  not,  under  similar  mournful  circumstances,  feel  her  sor- 
row chastened  by  words  like  these,  from  such  a  heart  of 
truth  ? 

The  above  instances  but  show  imperfectly  the  power  and 
constancy  of  Johnson's  religion.  We  must  behold  it  in  his 
charity  and  humanity,  the  fruits  of  his  faith  :  we  must  view 
it  as  it  pervaded  his  entire  life.  In  every  good  thing  he 
grows  better  by  acquaintance  :  and  though  rough  at  times, 
yet,  as  Goldsmith  said,  he  had  nothing  of  the  bear  but  the 
skin.  When  he  was  told  that  Sir  James  Macdonald,  who 
had  never  seen  him,  had  a  great  respect  for  him,  somewhat 
mingled  with  terror — '■  Sir,"  he  said,  "if  he  were  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  me,  it  might  lessen  both."  Wise  and  great 
as  Dr.  Johnson  was  in  this  world,  yet  was  he  humble  and 
earnest  in  his  longing  after  immortality,  and  could  have 
said  in  the  language  of  one  of  our  best  divines,^  though  not 
the  most  celebrated,  "  I  have  but  this  one  business  to  do,  to 
insure  this  dear  soul  of  mine  in  its  voyage  to  eternity  :  let 

*  Lucas. 


14  DR.  JOHNSON'S  RELIGION. 

who  will  gain  the  reputation  of  a  wise  man  by  a  clearer 
foresight  and  thriftier  management  of  affairs,  by  an  unwearied 
attendance  and  insinuating  applications,  I  shall  think  myself 
wise  enough,  if  I  can  but  be  saved,  and  great  enough  if  I 
enjoy  but  the  smiles  of  Heaven." 

And  pleasing  is  it  to  know  that  this  resolution  was  Ibl- 
lowed  out  to  the  last.  We  have  the  testimony  of  an  excel- 
lent individual,  to  which  more  may  be  added  in  its  proper 
place,  who  writes,  "  No  action  of  his  life  became  him  like 
the  leaving  of  it.  His  death  makes  a  kind  of  era  in  litera- 
ture :  piety  and  goodness  will  not  easily  find  a  more  able 
defender ;  and  it  is  delightful  to  see  him  set,  as  it  were,  his 
dying  seal  to  the  professions  of  his  life,  and  the  truth  of 
Christianity."^ 

Gratifying  also  is  it  to  find  that  the  conduct  of  Pope  in 
the  hours  of  death  was  such  as  became  the  author  of  the 
ecstatic  speech  addressed  by  the  Dying  Christian  to  his  Soul. 
"  Pope,"  says  Dr.  Johnson,!  "  expressed  undoubting  confi- 
dence of  a  future  state."  Being  asked  by  his  friend  Mr. 
Hooke,  a  Papist,  whether  he  would  not  die  like  his  father 
and  mother,  and  whether  a  priest  should  not  be  called,  he 
answered,  "I  do  not  think  it  essential,  but  it  will  be  very 
right  :  and  I  thank  you  for  putting  me  in  mind  of  it."  Mr. 
Hooke,  on  this  occasion,  told  Dr.  Warburton,  "  that  the 
priest  whom  he  had  provided  to  do  the  last  office  to  the 
dying  man,  came  out  from  him,  penetrated  to  the  last  degree 
with  the  state  of  mind  in  which  he  found  his  penitent, 
resigned  and  ivrapt  up  in  the  love  of  God  and  'inan.'' 
Rightly,  as  devoutly,  may  we  here  exclaim  with  the  poet, 

"  You  see  the  man ;  you  see  his  hold  on  heaven !" 


*   Memoirs  of  Hannah  More,  vol.  i.  p.  394. 

t  Life  of  William  Bowyer,  by  John  Nicholls,  p.  394. 


CHAPTER  V. 
HIS  HUMANITY. 

We  speak  of  a  man's  religion,  and  of  his  humanity  or 
benevolence,  Avhcn  in  fact  these  are  inseperable :  for, 
although  men  by  nature  are  enabled  to  perform  offices  of 
kindness,  yet  it  is  religion  that  cultivates  and  increases  the 
kindnesses  of  human  nature,  and  religion  w^ithout  the  prac- 
tice of  benevolence  would  be  a  nonenily.  It  is  so  much  our 
interest  to  be  kind  one  to  another,  that  very  much  of  our 
benevolence  may  be  leavened  with  selfish  feelings  ;  still  there 
are  innumerable  acts  of  charity  which  can  spring  only  from 
the  energy  of  faith  acting  on  our  hearts — faith  in  God,  and 
Christ,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  a  world  to  come  ;  not  that 
the  hope  of  reward  hereafter  solely  stimulates  the  mind,  for 
this  would  be  looking  forward  to  a  larger  reward  than  man 
can  give  (albeit  such  a  motive  is  sanctioned  in  God's  word, 
for  we  are  to  rejoice  and  leap  for  joy,  tliat  great  is  our 
reward  in  heaven),^  but  mainly  because  we  know  that  it  is 
pleasing  to  God  that  we  should  relieve  the  poor,  comfort  the 
afflicted,  speak  kindly  to  and  encourage  the  WTetched.  The 
mournful,  the  meek,  the  merciful,  the  pure,  the  peaceable, 
the  poor  in  spirit,  are  to  be  the  favorites  of  man,  inasmuch 
as  they  are  pronounced  to  be  the  favorites  of  God  :  and  let 
men  profess  whatever  zeal  they  may  in  the  cause  of  religion, 
and  be  ever  so  orthodox,  or  ever  so  warm  in  peculiar  views 
adopted  by  themselves,  the  saying  holds  good  that  the  icorst 
of  all  heretics  is  the  uncharitable  man. 

Having  become  acquainted  with  something  of  the  depth, 
and  fervor,  and  thorough  sincerity,  of  Dr.  Johnson's  religion, 
we  are  led  to  expect  many  acts  of  humanity  emanating  from 
him  whom  the  pious  Hannah  More  describes  as  one  "  whose 
faith  is  strong,  whose  morals  are  irreproachable  I"      Yet,  so 

*  Luke  vi.  23. 


46  DR.  JOHNSONS  HUMANITY. 

filled  is  Boswell's  Life  of  him  with  literary  achievement  and 
anecdote,  so  fraught  with  wise  observations  on  common  and 
worldly  things,  that  the  scarlet  thread  of  his  true  beneficences 
may,  in  some  degree,  escape  that  notice  and  regard  of  the 
hurried  reader,  to  which  they  are  entitled.  Still  it  does 
exist  in  no  mean  quantity  and  quality,  proving  with  what 
trueheartedness  he  said  on  one  occasion,  "Getting  money  is 
not  all  a  man's  business  ;  to  cultivate  kindness  is  a  valuable 
part  of  the  business  of  life." 

At  the  very  outset  of  this  consideration  of  Dr.  Johnson's 
life  in  its  humane  aspect,  it  must  be  candidly  stated  that  at 
times  he  was  exceedingly  rough,  and  even  coarse  in  his 
manner ;  and  yet  seldom  was  he  so  without  subsequent  re- 
pentance and  remorse.  That  he  did  good,  as  much  as  lay 
in  his  power,  to  many  persons,  is  very  apparent  ;  and  it  will 
not  be  found  that  he  ever  designedly  did  an  injury  to  any 
one  ;  so  that  we  may  exclaim  with  Burke,  when  he  spoke  in 
reference  to  the  alleged  roughness  of  Johnson's  manner,  "  It 
is  well  if,  when  a  man  comes  to  die,  he  has  nothing  heavier 
upon  his  conscience  than  having  been  a  little  rough  in  con- 
versation." 

Great  minds  have  often  great  failings  as  well  as  great  vir- 
tues, and  although  we  can  not  call  the  occasional  roughness 
of  Johnson's  manner  a  great  failing,  yet  we  can  see  that  the 
ponderous  power  of  his  thought,  when  provoked  to  vehemence, 
naturally  led  him  to  seek  at  once  to  annihilate  an  antagonist, 
especially  if  he  was  one  in  whom  presumption  or  flippancy 
of  remark  was  observable.  "  How  very  false  is  the  notion," 
says  Boswell,  "  that  has  gone  the  round  of  the  world,  of  the 
rough,  and  passionate,  and  harsh  manners  of  this  great  and 
good  man  I"  And  although  Boswell  allows  that  sometimes 
he  displayed  impetuosity  of  temper,  too  easily  excited  by  the 
folly  and  absurdity  of  others,  and  perhaps  at  times  unwar- 
rantably shown,  yet  he  tells  us,  that  during  by  far  the  greater 
portion  of  his  time,  he  was  civil,  obliging,  polite,  insomuch 
that  many  persons  who  were  long  acquainted   with   him,* 

*  The  ingenious  Mr.  Mickle  thus  wrote  of  Dr.  Jolmson.  in  a  letter 
to  Boswell : 

"  I  was  upwards  of  twelve  years  acquainted  with  him,  vi'as  frequently 


DR.  JOHNSOxN'S  HUMANITY.  47 

never  received  a  harsh  v^'ord  from  him,  or  heard  him  express 
himself  with  heat  or  violence  in  any  way.  That  he  was  an 
admirer  of  gentleness  in  society  may  be  learned  from  an  an- 
ecdote related  of  him,  to  the  eifect  that  when  Mr.  Vesey  was 
proposed  as  a  member  of  the  Literary  Club,  Mr.  Burke  be- 
gan by  saying  that  he  was  a  man  of  gentle  manners.  "  Sir," 
said  Johnson,  "  you  need  say  no  more.  When  you  have 
said  a  man  of  gentle  manners,  you  have  said  enough."  And 
that  he  had  no  great  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  severe  manners 
in  the  great  object  of  ameliorating  the  disposition  of  mankind, 
may  be  gathered  from  his  observation  on  Lord  Mansfield's 
saying,  "  My  lords,  severity  is  not  the  way  to  govern  either 
boys  or  men."  "  Nay,"  remarked  Johnson,  "it  is  the  way 
to  govern  them  ;  I  know  not  whether  it  be  the  way  to  mend 
them."  There  is  a  just  soundness  in  this  latter  remark, 
more  than  in  the  former  :  the  one  is  that  of  an  advocate  in 
a  particular  cause,  the  other  that  of  a  philosopher  in  the 
calmness  of  truth. 

We  must  always  bear  in  mind  that  Johnson  inherited 
a  constitutional  malady,  which  at  times  must  needs  cre- 
ate morbid  and  melancholy  sensations  in  his  mind,  and  ren- 
der it  impatient  under  provocation,  and  especially  sensi- 
tive in  any  case  of  a  worrying  or  disturbing  nature.^  We 
know  how  painfully  aware  he  was  of  his  state,  how  he 
prayed  and   struggled   against  this   calamity,  and  heroically 

in  his  company,  always  talked  with  ease  to  him,  and  can  truly  say,  that 
I  never  received  from  him  one  rough  word." 

For  some  people,  however,  he  had  words  rough  indeed,  and  many 
of  these  persons  deserved  them. 

Hannah  More  writes  (1785) — "  Boswell  tells  me  he  is  printing  an- 
ecdotes of  Johnson,  not  his  life,  but,  as  he  has  the  vanity  to  call  it,  his 
pyramid.  I  besought  his  tenderness  for  our  virtuous  and  most  re- 
vered departed  friend,  and  begged  he  would  mitigate  some  of  his  as- 
perities. He  said,  roughly,  '  He  would  not  cut  off  his  claws,  nor  make 
a  tiger  a  cat,  to  please  anv  body.'  *' — Memoirs  of  Hannah  More.,  vol.  i. 
p.  403. 

^  *  Carlyle  says  of  Dr.  Johnson,  "  Nature,  in  return  for  his  noble- 
ness, had  said  to  him,  Live  in  an  element  of  diseased  sorrow.  Nay, 
perhaps  the  sorrow  and  the  nobleness  were  intimately,  and  even  in- 
separablv,  connected  with  each  other."' — Heroes  and  Hero- Worship, 
p.  280.  " 


48  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

wrote  of  himself,  "  Though  it  is  wise  to  be  serious,  it  is 
useless  and  foolish,  and  perhaps  sinful,  to  be  gloomy."  Who 
that  loves  the  character  of  Cowper  also,  will  not  bewail  in 
his  very  heart  the  misfortune  of  this  kind  that  perplexed  the 
temperament  of  that  good  man  ;  and  of  which  he  speaks  so 
strongly  and  so  tenderly,  from  his  first  attack  of  depression 
when  commencing  studies  at  the  Temple,  even  to  that  time 
when  he  writes,  "  Thus  have  I  spent  twenty  years,  but 
thus  I  shall  not  spend  twenty  years  more  I"  No,  though  he 
was  "  hunted  by  spiritual  hounds  in  the  night  season,"  and 
though  he  wrote  "  under  the  pressure  of  sadness  not  to  be 
described  ;"  yet  his  religion  bore  him  through  difficulties  and 
distresses  which,  in  its  absence,  would  have  overwhelmed 
him. 

How  salutary  must  have  been  his  going  to  church  for 
the  first  time  after  his  recovery  from  his  first  attack,  when 
his  heart  was  full  of  love  to  all  the  congregation,  especially  to 
such  as  seemed  serious  and  attentive.  Fortunate  indeed  for 
his  mental  health  was  his  attachment  to  the  church,  and  his 
friendship  with  some  of  her  pious  ministers.  "  Cowper," 
says  his  biographer,  "  was  warmly  attached  to  the  religion 
of  the  Established  Church,  in  which  he  had  been  trained  up, 
and  which,  like  his  friend  Mr.  Newton,  he  calmly  and  delib- 
erately preferred  to  any  other."  ^  This  choice  must  have 
served  rather  to  cheer  his  mind  than  to  excite  it,  and  to 
soothe  his  heart  rather  than  inflame  it:  for  "  all  those  alle- 
viations of  sorrow,"  as  Dr.  Johnson  observes  of  his  case, 
"  those  delightful  anticipations  of  heavenly  rest,  those  healing 
consolations  to  a  wounded  spirit,  of  which  he  was  permitted 
to  taste,  at  the  period  when  uninterrupted  reason  resumed  its 
sway,  were  unequivocally  to  be  ascribed  to  the  operation  of 
those  very  principles  and  views  of  religion,"  that  is,  Cal- 
vinistic,  as  moderated  by  the  tone  of  the  church,  which  he 
had  adopted.  Cowper,  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the  Rev.  John 
Newton,  or  in  familiar  counsel  with  Madan,  and  Johnson 
kneeling  in  awe  at  the  altar  of  St.  Clement  Danes,  were 
both  indebted  (how  largely  !)  to  the  healing  influences  of  our 

*  Life  of  William  Cowper,  by  Thomas  Taylor,  .3d  edition,  p.  402. 


DR.  JOHNSOiN'S  HUMANITY.  49 

most  holy  and  most  consoling  religion.      Of  either  of  them 
we  might  aptly  say, 

'*  Thou  shalt  have  joy  in  sadness  soon ; 
The  pure,  cahn  hope  be  thine, 
Which  brightens,  like  the  eastern  moon, 
As  day's  wild  lights  decline." 


INSTANCES    OF    HIS    HUMANITY. 

It  now  becomes  a  peculiar  pleasure  to  record  some  in- 
stances, scattered  throughout  his  valuable  career,  of  Dr. 
Johnson's  kindnesses  shown  toward  his  fellow-creatures,  in 
order  that  we  may  determine  whether,  in  good  George  Her- 
bert's words,  he  did 

"  Find  out  men's  wants  and  will, 
And  meet  them  there.     All  worldly  joys  go  less 
To  the  one  joy  of  doing  kindnesses." 

A  characteristic  incident  is  related  of  him  so  early  as  the 
year  1732,  before  he  was  twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  from 
the  previous  opinion  of  his  friends  concerning  him,  we  may 
be  sure  that  it  was  by  no  means  his  first  kind  action.  It 
appears  that  he  engaged  to  translate  a  book  from  the  French 
into  English,  but  he  soon  became  indolent,  and  the  work  at 
a  stand-still.  His  friend,  Mr.  Hector,  we  are  told,  "  knew 
that  a  motive  of  humanity  would  be  the  most  prevailing  ar- 
gument with  his  friend  ;"  so  he  forthwith  went  to  Johnson, 
and  communicated  to  him  that  the  printer  could  have  no 
other  engagement  until  this  one  was  finished,  and  that  he 
was  very  poor,  and  his  family  in  want.  Johnson,  upon 
hearing  this,  in  spite  of  the  ailment  of  his  body,  immediately 
set  vigorously  to  work.  "  He  lay  in  bed,"  we  read,  "  with 
the  book,  which  was  a  quarto,  before  him,  and  dictated, 
while  Hector  wrote."  It  must  be  mentioned,  that  at  this 
time  Johnson  himself  was  in  a  state  of  great  poverty,  and  he 
obtained  only  five  guineas  on  the  completion  of  the  book. 

There  are  few  men  who  will  not  consider  the  history  and 
fate  of  Collins  the  poet  very  affecting  ;   and  afTecting  also  is 

C 


50  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUxMANITY. 

Johnson's  tenderness  on  his  behalf.  "  Poor  dear  Collins  !" 
he  writes,  "  would  a  letter  give  him  any  pleasure  ?  I  have 
a  mind  to  write  I"  To  another  he  writes,  in  less  than  a 
month's  time,  "  Poor  dear  Collins  I  Let  me  know  whether 
you  think  it  would  give  him  pleasure  that  I  should  write  to 
him.  I  have  often  been  near  his  state,  and  therefore  have 
it  in  great  commiseration."  Some  months  after,  he  writes 
ao-ain,  '•'  What  becomes  of  noor  dear  Collins  ?  I  tvrote  him 
a  letter  which  he  never  answered.  I  suppose  writing  is  very 
troublesome  to  him.  That  man  is  no  common  loss  I"  The 
repetition  of  the  above  endearing  epithets  shows  how  poor 
Collins's  state  was  fixed  in  Johnson's  mind.  He  died  in  the 
course  of  this  year.  Collins  was  evidently  a  man  of  most 
refined  genius  and  sensitive  temper,  but  irresolute  and  indo- 
lent to  the  last  degree  ;  ever  planning,  yet  never  achieving. 
What  he  did  perform,  makes  us  deeply  dejDlore  the  existence 
of  these  failings,  whereby  much  of  a  charming  style  of  pen- 
siveness  has  been  lost  to  the  admirers  of  that  kind  of  dispo- 
sition. Johnson's  account  of  his  life,  though  brief,  is  beau- 
tifully written ;  and  how  piercing  is  the  thought,  in  a  letter 
to  Joseph  Warton,  after  reflecting  on  the  folly  of  exulting  in 
any  intellectual  powers,  when  the  condition  of  poor  Collins 
is  beheld,  "  This  busy  and  forcible  mind  is  now  under  the 
government  of  those  who  lately  would  not  have  been  able  to 
comprehend  the  least  and  most  narrow  of  its  designs  I"  As 
in  his  Life  of  Savage,  so  in  that  of  Collins,  the  charitable 
mind  of  Johnson  is  ever  prominent ;  and  it  was  after  the 
lapse  of  many  years,  that  he  mentions  him  as  one,  "  with 
whom  I  once  delighted  to  converse,  and  whom  I  yet  remem- 
ber with  tenderness."  Nearly  twenty  years  after  Collins's 
death,  we  find  him  commissioning  Boswell  to  purchase  for 
him  "Collins's  Poems,"  just  four  years  before  he  commenced 
the  "  Lives  of  the  Poets,"  which  were  completed  in  the  year 
1781  ;  so  it  may  be  supposed  that  he  wished  to  have  the 
poems  for  his  own  satisfaction,  independently  of  any  idea  of 
writing  a  memoir  of  the  poet ;  especially  since  he  orders 
them  with  another  little  book  in  no  kind  of  connection  with 
the  English  poets.  Our  living  poet,  Wordsworth,  has  not 
been  unmindful  of  the  sorrows  of  a  brother  poet ;   and  hovv^ 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  51 

tender  is-  his  "  llemembrance  of  Collins,"  vain  though  the 
prayer  be  I 

"  Now  let  us,  as  we  float  along-, 
Foi-  hi7n  suspend  the  dashing  oar ; 
And  pray  that  never  child  of  song 
May  know  that  poet's  sorrows  more." 

Tenderness  begets  tenderness  :  we  feel  kindly  disposed 
toward  the  man  whom  we  know  to  be  kind  to  others.  A 
remarkable  instance  of  this  feeling  occurs  in  Johnson's  senti- 
ments toAvard  Thomson,  the  poet.  It  was  expected  that  he 
would,  in  his  "  Lives  of  the  Poets,"  have  treated  Thomson's 
2)rivate  conduct  with  severity.  But  no  ;  one  letter  of  the 
poet,  one  proof  of  fraternal  affection  disarmed  him.  Great 
credit  is  due  to  Boswell,  who  may  have  been  in  part  anxious 
to  exalt  the  character  of  his  countryman,  but  quite  as  great 
credit  is  due  to  Dr.  Johnson,  in  so  readily  casting  away  a 
prejudice,  and  allowing  one  trait  of  generous  and  affectionate 
conduct  to  blot  out  from  his  biography  a  multitude  of  sins. 
Boswell  inclosed  a  copy  of  Thomson's  last  letter  to  his  sister,  and 
writes  to  Dr.  Johnson,  "  From  this  late*interview  with  his  sister, 
I  think  much  more  favorably  of  him,  as  I  hope  you  wil]." 
Dr.  Johnson  inserts  the  letter  in  his  "  Life  of  Thomson,"  and 
a  most  tender  and  generous  letter  it  is — though  nothing  more 
than  what  should  ever  pass  between  brother  and  sister. 

Great  was  Johnson's  kindness  toward  Goldsmith,  and 
Goldsmith  certainly  appreciated  it,  although  each  would  occa- 
sionally say  rather  severe  things  of  the  other  :  and  it  is  said 
that  Johnson  had  more  kindness  for  Goldsmith  than  Gold- 
smith for  him.  The  latter  had,  unfortunately,  a  great  desire 
to  shine  in  conversation — too  often  unconscious,  dissimilar  to 
Addison,  of  his  want  of  ability  in  this  faculty — and  thus  not 
only  attracted  to  himself  some  pertinent  saying  of  Johnson, 
but  also  endured  much  self-mortification.  Once  when  he 
thought  he  was  talking  much  to  the  admiration  of  a  mixed 
company,  a  German,  who  had  perceived  Dr.  Johnson  about 
to  speak,  suddenly  touched  him,  saying,  "Stay,  stay,  Toctor 
Shonson  is  going  to  say  something  :"  and  a  similar  circum- 
stance also  occurred  at  a  party  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's. 
Dr.  Johnson  said  truly  of  him,   "  No  man  was  more  foohsh 


52  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

when  he  had  not  a  pen  in  his  hand,  or  more  wise  when  he 
had  :"  and  on  another  occasion,  "Goldsmith  was  a  man  who, 
whatever  he  wrote,  did  it  better  than  any  other  man  could 
do."  Goldsmith  himself  sometimes  seemed  aware  of  his 
deficiency,  although  he  would  always  persist  in  talking  on 
matters  he  knew  nothing  of  whatever  ;  for  Johnson  says, 
"  What  Goldsmith  comically  says  of  himself  is  very  true — 
he  always  gets  the  better  when  he  argues  alone  ;  meaning, 
that  he  is  master  of  his  subject  in  his  study,  and  can  write 
well  upon  it  ;  but,  when  he  comes  into  company,  grows  con- 
fused, and  unable  to  talk."  It  is  pleasant,  however,  after 
all  their  little  bickerings,  to  know  that  Johnson  had  a  most 
tender  regard  for  Goldsmith.  The  kindness  of  Johnson  in 
selling  a  MS.  for  him,  and  thus  giving  him  the  means  of 
paying  his  rent,  is  well  known.  He  spoke  well  of,  and  per- 
sonally admired  all  his  written  performances,  excepting  the 
Life  of  Parnell,  which  he  thought  poor  because  the  materials 
were  scanty  ;  and  after  his  death,  he  speaks  of  "  poor,  dear 
Dr.  Goldsmith,"  and  writes,  -'Let  not  his  frailties  be  remem- 
bered :  he  was  a  very  great  man."  And  still  more  pleasing 
is  it  to  find  Goldsmith,  the  vanquished  of  Johnson,  saying, 
"Johnson,  to  be  sure,  has  a  roughness  in  his  manner  :  but 
no  man  alive  has  a  more  tender  heart."  Dr.  Johnson  wrote 
his  epitaph  in  Latin,  a  circumstance  which  led  to  the  cele- 
brated round  robin  :  but  why  does  not  Goldsmith  appear  in 
his  "  Lives  of  the  Poets  ?" 

A  noble  trait  in  Dr.  Johnson's  character  is  that  of  his 
writing  Dedications  for  the  works  of  others,  and  even  writing 
for  another  man's  support.  We  have  no  reason  to  think 
that  he  received  any  compensation  for  these  labors,  because, 
on  the  contrary,  some  of  those  authors  whom  he  thus  bene- 
fited were  unwilling  to  confess  that  they  had  been  so  aided, 
for  fear  it  might  be  thought  that  Johnson  had  also  added 
pecuniary  assistance.  Still  they  wished,  at  the  time  of  the 
publication  of  their  books,  that  the  public  should  believe  that 
Johnson  wrote  such  Dedications,  and  perhaps  it  was  their 
mean  wish  that  the  public  should  think  that  the  writer  was 
remunerated  by  them.  We  may  know  that  their  w^orks  sold 
better  in  consequence  of  his  exertions,  for  Boswell  said  to 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  53 

him  once,  "  What  an  exceeding  expense,  sir,  do  you  put  us 
to  in  buying  books  to  which  you  have  written  prefaces  or  ded- 
ications I"  and  Goldsmith  having  interposed  a  remark  to  the 
efi'ect  that  probably  little  wit  appeared  in  these  prefaces,  and 
Johnson  having  acquiesced,  Boswell  unnecessarily,  and  per- 
haps impertinently  asks,  Why  these  persons,  then,  should 
apply  to  a  particular  individual  ?  Johnson,  who,  of  course, 
could  not  answer  that  it  was  on  account  of  the  celebrity  of 
his  own  name,  or  the  superiority  of  his  own  composition,  and 
would  have  been  still  more  distressed  to  blazon  or  magnify 
his  feelings  of  charity,  simply  replied,  "  Why,  sir,  one  man 
has  greater  readiness  at  doing  it  than  another."  We  can 
understand  that  it  was  his  kindness  of  heart  that  led  him  in 
this  way  to  be  the  coadjutor  of  a  literary  brother. 

For  some  months  he  wrote  articles  in  a  periodical  for  poor 
Smart,  who  went  out  of  his  mind.  But  afterward  finding 
that  Smart  was  engaged  under  disadvantageous  terms  by  a 
bookseller,  and  that  in  fact  he  was  benefiting  the  bookseller 
rather  than  the  unfortunate  author,  he  gave  it  up.  "  I  hoped," 
he  said,  "  his  M'its  would  soon  return  to  him  :  mine  returned 
to  me,  and  I  wrote  in  the  'Universal  Visitor'  no  longer." 

Boswell  gives  a  list  of  the  number  of  dedications  and  pref- 
aces which  he  wrote,  and  Johnson  himself  said,  "  Why,  I 
have  dedicated  to  the  royal  family  all  round  ;  that  is  to  say, 
to  the  last  generation  of  the  royal  family :"  and  though  gen- 
erally insensible  to  the  charm  of  music,  we  find  him  dedica- 
ting some  for  the  German  flute  to  the  Duke  of  York.  Though 
he  did  not  feel  himself  responsible  for  every  word  he  wrote 
in  these  prefaces,  &c.,  yet  we  may  be  sure  that,  in  the  main, 
he  wrote  with  much  honesty  of  purpose,  for  he  always  made 
a  stipulation  that  the  book  should  be  huiocent — and,  we  find 
him,  on  an  occasion  of  ofiering  an  excuse  for  certain  flattery 
of  the  queen  by  Garrick,  saying,  "  Why,  sir,  I  would  not  lurite, 
I  would  not  give  solemnly  under  my  hand  a  character  beyond 
what  I  thought  really  true:"  for  a  speech  on  the  stage  was 
merely  formal.  And  we  find*'  that  even  his  usual  politeness 
to  ladies  gave  way  to  his  habit  of  plain  speaking  ;  for  when  a 
lady  once  pressed  him  closely  to  read  over  her  new  play,  and  he 

*  Life  of  Hannah  More,  vol.  i.  p.  201. 


54  DR.  JOHNSON'S  FIUMANITY. 

told  her  that  she  might  as  well  read  it  herself,  to  which  she 
rejoined  that  she  had  no  time,  she  had  already  so  many  irons  in 
the  fire  :  "  Why  then,  madam,"  said  he,  quite  out  of  patience, 
for  the  lady  would  not  take  his  delay  as  a  hint,  "the  best  thing  I 
can  advise  you  to  do,  is  to  put  your  tragedy  ^vith  your  irons." 

Boswell  relates  the  humorous  nature  of  some  of  the  inter- 
views between  Johnson  and  sundry  authors,  men  who  in  fear 
and  trembling  awaited  his  opinion.  He  remarks,  "It  is 
wonderful  what  a  number  and  variety  of  writers,  some  of 
them  even  unknown  to  him,  prevailed  on  his  good-nature  to 
look  over  their  works,  and  suggest  corrections  and  improve- 
ments." But  perhaps  his  good-nature  was  rarely  drawn 
upon  in  greater  degree  than  by  Davies,  the  bookseller,  who, 
in  his  absence,  ventured  to  publish  two  volumes  of  "  Fugi- 
tive and  Miscellaneous  Pieces,"  as  the  production  of  the 
"  authors  of  the  Rambler."  Johnson,  we  are  told,^  was 
inclined  to  resent  this  liberty,  until  he  recollected  Davies's 
narrow  circumstances,  when  he  cordially  forgave  him,  and 
continued  his  kindness  to  him  as  usual. 

Many  other  persons,  besides  authors,  he  assisted  with  rec- 
ommendatory letters  in  lieu  of  dedications  ;  and  this  he  did 
with  exceeding  tenderness  of  manner  both  toward  the  per- 
son to  whom  he  recommended,  as  well  as  toward  the  one 
recommended.  On  introducing  a  young  man,  named  Pater- 
son,  who  offered  himself  to  the  Academy,  to  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  he  writes,  "  How  much  it  is  in  your  power  to 
favor  or  forward  a  young  man,  I  do  not  know ;  nor  do  I  know 
how  much  this  candidate  deserves  favor  by  his  personal 
merit,  &c.  I  recommend  him  as  the  son  of  my  friend^ 
And  mindful  of  the  exceeding  use  even  of  a  great  man's 
countenance  to  a  commencing  author  or  artist,  yet  not  wish- 
ing to  bind  Sir  Joshua,  he  just  adds  gently,  "  You  have  heard 
of  a  man  who  asked  no  other  favor  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole 
than  that  he  would  bow  to  him  at  his  levee." 

To  Mr.  Langton,  and  Dr.  AVarton,  he  wrote  on  behalf  of 

a  poor  and  aged  painter,  "  who  never  rose  higher  than  to  get 

his  immediate  living,  and  at  eighty-three  was  disabled  by  a 

slight  stroke  of  the  palsy,"  that  they  would  exert  their  influ- 

*  See  Chalmers's  Biographical  Dictionary,  vol.  xix.  p.  66. 


DR.  JOHxNSON'S  HUMANITY.  65 

ence  with  the  Bishop  of  Chester  to  obtain  for  him  the  next 
vacancy  in  a  hospital.  This  was  on  June  29th,  and  on  the 
following  July  9th,  he  writes  to  the  Pi-ev.  Dr.  Vyse,  request- 
ing his  assistance  in  recommending  an  old  friend  to  the  Arch- 
bishop, as  governor  of  the  Charter  House.  "  He  has,"  he 
states,  '<  all  the  common  claims  to  charity,  being  old,  poor, 
and  inhrm  to  a  great  degree.  He  has  hkewise  another  claim, 
to  which  no  scholar  can  refuse  attention  :  he  is  by  several 
descents  the  nephew  of  Grotius — of  him  from  whom  perhaps 
every  man  of  learning  has  learned  something."  It  appears 
that  Archbishop  Cornwallis  readily  complied  with  Dr.  John- 
son's request ;  but,  unfortunately,  a  letter  of  thanks  w^iich  he 
wrote  to  Dr.  Vyse,  and  in  which  he  further  praises  Grotius, 
has  been  lost,  and  Dr.  Vyse  only  forwards  a  very  short  letter, 
"as  a  proof,"  he  says,  '-'of  the  very  humane  part  which  Dr. 
Johnson  took  in  behalf  of  a  distressed  and  deserving  person." 
He  must  have  written  four  letters  to  the  Kev.  Dr.  Vyse,  in 
the  cause  of  this  poor  man.* 

*  In  the  Public  Advertiser  of  May  13,  1778,  is  this  letter,  from  a 
benevolent  man  of  that  time,  Ignatius  Sancho,  and  inserted  unknown  to 
him : 

To  Mr.  B 

"Dear  Sir — I  could  not  see  Mr.  de  Groote  till  this  morning  ; — he 
approached  the  threshold,  poor  man  !  in  very  visible  illness ;  yet,  un- 
der the  pressure  of  a  multitude  of  infirmities,  he  could  not  forget  his 
recent  humane  benefactor.  With  faltering  speech  he  inquired  much 
^'ho  you  were  ;  and  in  the  conclusion,  put  up  his  most  earnest  petitions 
to  the  Father  of  mercies  in  your  behalf;  which  (if  the  prayers  of  an 
indigent  genius  have  as  much  efficacy  as  those  of  a  fat  bishop)  I  should 
hope  and  trust  you  may  one  day  be  better  for.  He  is  in  direct  descent 
from  the  famous  Hugo  Grotius,  by  the  father's  side  ....  His  age  is 
eighty-six;  he  had  a  paralytic  stroke,  and  has  a  ruptm-e.  His  eyes 
are  dim,  even  with  the  help  of  spectacles.  In  truth,  he  comes  close  to 
Shakspeare's  description,  in  his  last  age  of  man — '  sans  teeth,  sans 
eyes,  sans  taste,  sans  every  thing.' 

"  He  has  the  honor  to  be  known  to  Dr.  Johnson,  and  the  luck  to  be 
sometimes  remembered  by  Mr.  Garrick.  If  you  help  him,  you  do  your- 
self a  kindness — me  a  pleasure — and  he^  poor  soul,  a  good,  which  he 
may  one  day  throw  in  your  teeth,  in  that  country  where  good  actions 
are  in  higher  estimation  than  stars,  ribbons,  or  crowns. 

''  Yours  most  respectfully,  Ignatius  Sancho. 

"He  lodges  at  No.  9,  New  Pye-street,  Westminster." 

This  amiable  letter-writer  was  foolishlv  given  the  name  of  Sancho, 


56  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

Once,  on  going  in  a  hackney-coach  to  dine  with  General 
PaoH,  Boswell  was  surprised  at  Johnson  first  stopping  at  the 
bottom  of  Hedge-lane,  in  order  to  leave  a  letter,  as  he  told 
him,  "  with  good  news  for  a  poor  man  in  distress."  The 
poor  man's  name  was  LoAve,  a  painter,  who  lived  at  No.  3, 
in  Hedge-lane,  and  was  in  extreme  distress  ;  and  the  "good 
news"  most  probably  was  that  a  picture  of  his  had  been 
admitted  to  the  Exhibition  of  the  Royal  Academy.  A  few 
years  afterward  we  read  a  very  earnest  letter  from  him  to 
Lady  Southwell  in  behalf  of  this  son  of  poverty  ;  and  to  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  and  Barry,  he  sent  letters  requesting  a  re- 
consideration of  the  merit  of  a  picture  painted  by  Lowe.  He 
happily  prevailed,  and  the  picture  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal 
Academy.  The  subject  was  the  Deluge,  when  the  water 
had  nearly  reached  the  summit  of  the  last  uncovered  mount- 
ain, and  one  of  the  antediluvian  race  is  represented  as  swim- 
ming toward  this  spot,  with  a  child  uplifted  by  his  gigantic 
arm,  where  a  lion,  lean  and  hungry,  stands  ready  to  seize 
the  child.  Johnson  said,  "  Sir,  your  picture  is  noble  and 
probable."  "  A  compliment,  indeed,"  said  Mr.  Lowe,  "  from 
a  man  who  can  not  lie,  and  can  not  be  mistaken."  Poor 
Lowe's  gratitude  exceeded  his  judgment  of  his  patron's 
opinion  in  regard  to  pictures  ;  for  although  the  idea  is  certain- 
ly noble,  yet  it  seems  not  to  have  been  well  executed,  and  he 
never  afterward  showed  any  talent.  After  this,  we  find  two 
kind  letters  from  Dr.  Johnson  to  the  poor  painter,  and  he 
writes  for  him  a  letter  of  thanks  to  Lady  Southwell,  which 
he  is  to  copy.  Johnson,  probably,  had  not  a  high  idea 
of  Lowe's  talent,  but  he  was  a  persevering  friend  to  him. 
In  one  of  his  diaries  we   read   this   memorandum,   "  Paid 

L six  guineas ;"  which  Croker  determines  in  favor  of 

Lowe. 

by  a  lady  to  whom  he  was  presented  in  England,  at  the  age  of  two 
years,  on  account  of  some  resemblance  to  that  facetious  squire.  He 
was  a  negro,  and  was  baptized  by  the  name  of  Ignatius,  by  the  bishop 
at  Carthagena.  He  seems  to  have  idolized  Sterne,  and  imitates  him 
in  his  blanks  and  dashes — for  he  possessed  some  literary  ability,  though 
rising  little  above  a  sei*vant ;  and  Memoirs  of  his  Life,  with  his  letters 
ntid  portrait,  were  thought  worthy  of  publication.  See  Gentleman's 
Magnzinr,  p.  437.      1782. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  57 

There  was  a  man  named  Peyton,  who  wrote  for  him 
when  dictating  for  his  Dictionary,  to  whom  he  was  always  a 
friend.  The  dehcacy  with  which  Johnson  would  send  him  on 
an  errand,  thus  making  him  useful  without  degrading  him, 
is  specially  remarked  by  Boswell.  We  read  of  an  entry  in 
his  diary,  ''On.  Good  Friday  I  paid  Peyton,  without  requiring 
work."  He  also  writes  letters  to  Mr.  Lanfjton  and  Mrs. 
Thrale  on  his  behalf  To  the  former  he  says,  "  I  put  into 
his  hands  this  morning  four  guineas.  If  you  could  collect 
three  guineas  more,  it  would  clear  him  from  his  present  diffi- 
culty ;"  and  to  the  latter,  "  Peyton  and  Macbean  are  both 
starving,  and  I  can  not  keep  them."  At  this  time  Johnson 
had  not  much  to  spare,  though  in  enjoyment  of  his  pension  ; 
but,  even  at  his  poorest  times,  he  would  spare  something  for 
an  old  friend.  Peyton  was  a  man  of  considerable  learning, 
and  Dr.  Johnson  apprized  Mrs.  Piozzi  of  his  death  :  "  Poor 
Peyton  expired  this  morning ;"  he  then  describes  the  intens- 
ity of  his  poverty,  and  his  wife's  illness,  and  would  forgive 
him  if  even  the  thought  of  wishing  to  see  his  wife  removed 
from  the  miseries  and  expenses  of  this  painful  world  entered 
his  mind  ;  and  thus  concludes,  "  Such  miscarriages,  when 
they  happen  to  those  on  whom  many  eyes  are  fixed,  fill  his- 
tories and  tragedies  ;  and  tears  have  been  shed  for  the  suffer- 
ings, and  wonder  excited  by  the  fortitude,  of  those  who  neither 
did  nor  suffered  more  than  Peyton."  This  must  recall  to 
our  minds  that  excellent  article  of  rebuke  in  the  Adventurer, 
in  which  whole  armies  are  described  as  perishing  in  war, 
without  drawing  forth  one  sigh  from  the  listening  circle  ; 
but  when  a  single  instance  of  a  dying  officer  is  related,  and 
the  account  of  his  wife  wandering  over  the  field  of  battle  to 
search  for  him  among  the  slain — then  the  tears  flow  fast,  and 
that  sympathy  is  aroused  for  the  individual,  which  was  denied 
to  thousands.  Johnson  frequently  relieved  him,  and  bore  the 
expenses  of  his  burial,  and  also  that  of  his  wife. 

There  was  a  man  very  meanly  dressed  whom  Dr.  Johnson 
used  to  observe  at  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Communion. 
More  than  once  he  wished  to  speak  with  him,  and  on  one 
occasion  slipped  some  money  into  his  hand,  for  he  perceived  him 
to  be  in  want.      "  I  invited  home  with  me,"  he  says,  at  last, 


58  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

"  the  man  whose  pious  behavior  I  had  for  several  years  ob- 
served on  this  day,  and  found  him  a  kind  of  Methodist,  full 
of  texts,  but  ill  instructed."  He  was  altogether  disappointed 
in  him,  but  adds  this  amiable  reflection  :  "  Let  me  not  be 
prejudiced  hereafter  against  the  appearance  of  piety  in  mean 
persons,  who,  with  indeterminate  notions,  and  perverse  or  in- 
elegant conversation,  perhaps  are  doing  all  they  can." 

The  following  memoranda  are  found  together:  "July  2, 
I  paid  Mr.  Simpson  ten  guineas,  which  he  had  formerly  lent 
me  in  my  necessity."  <'  July  8,  I  lent  Mr.  Simpson  ten 
guineas  more."  There  is  something  very  pleasing  in  the 
relieved  thus  assisting  a  generous  reliever.  "July  16,  I 
received  seventy-five  pounds.      Lent  Mr.  Davies  twenty-five." 

To  Mr.  HoUyer  he  writes,  "  I  have  lately  received  a  let- 
ter from  our  cousin  Thomas  Johnson,  complaining  of  great 
distress.  His  distress,  I  suppose,  is  real.  In  1772  (this  was 
two  years  before),  about  Christmas,  I  sent  him  thirty  pounds, 
because  he  thought  he  could  do  something  in  a  shop  :  many 
have  lived  who  began  with  less.  In  the  summer,  1773,  I 
sent  him  ten  pounds  more,  as  I  had  promised  him.  What 
was  the  event?  In  the  spring,  1774,  he  wrote  me,  and 
that  he  was  in  debt  for  rent,  and  in  want  of  clothes."  John- 
son expresses  surprise  at  this,  since  no  misfortune  or  miscon- 
duct is  alluded  to,  and  requests  Mr.  Hollyer  to  make  inquiry. 
The  man  had  visited  Johnson  in  the  summer  :  "I  was  in 
the  country,"  he  says,  "  which,  perhaps,  was  well  for  us  both. 
I  might  have  used  him  harshly,  and  then  have  repented.'^ 
It  would  have  been  best  for  the  poor  man,  most  probably,  if 
Johnson  had  used  him  harshly,  for  repentance  with  Johnson 
was  not  an  empty  sorrow.  He  concludes  the  letter,  "  I 
have  sent  a  bill  for  five  pounds,  which  you  will  be  so  kind  to 
get  discounted  for  him,  and  see  the  money  properly  applied, 
and  give  me  your  advice  what  can  be  done."  Johnson 
thought  that  the  consumption  of  forty  pounds  in  sixteen 
months,  and  application  for  a  further  sum,  showed  that  some- 
thing must  be  wrong  in  the  way  of  self-exertion,  and  there- 
fore, though  he  could  not  refuse  his  kinsman,  yet  still  he  was 
not  the  man  to  be  imposed  upon  by  an  idle  or  worthless 
person. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  59 

Mr.  Strahan,  the  printer,  had  taken  a  poor  boy  from  the 
country  on  Johnson's  recommendation.  Johnson  having  in- 
quired after  him,  said,  "  Mr.  Strahan,  let  me  have  five  guin- 
eas on  account,  and  I'll  give  this  boy  one.  Nay,  if  a  man 
recommends  a  boy,  and  does  nothing  for  him,  it  is  sad  work. 
Call  him  down."  Boswell  followed  Johnson  into  the  court- 
yard behind  Mr.  Strahan's  house,  and  there,  he  says,  had 
proof  of  what  Johnson  professed,  when  he  had  said,  "  Some 
people  tell  you  that  they  let  themselves  down  to  the  capacity 
of  their  hearers,  I  never  do  that.  I  speak,  uniformly,  in 
as  intelligible  a  manner  as  I  can." 

"  Well,  my  boy,"  exclaimed  Johnson,  "  how  do  you  get 
on  ?"  '•  Pretty  v/ell,  sir  ;  but  they  are  afraid  I  arn't  strong 
enough  for  some  parts  of  the  business."  "  Why,  I  shall  be 
sorry  for  it,"  replied  Johnson  ;  "for  when  you  consider  with 
how  little  mental  poiver  and  corporeal  labor  a  printer  can 
get  a  guinea  a  week,  it  is  a  very  desirable  occupation  for 
you.  Do  you  hear?  take  all  the  pains  you  can:  and  if 
this  does  not  do,  we  must  think  of  some  other  way  of  life  for 
you.      There's  a  guinea." 

"  Here,"  remarks  Boswell,  "  was  one  of  the  many,  many 
instances  of  his  active  benevolence  ;"  at  the  same  time  he 
could  not  but  smile  at  the  slow  and  sonorous  solem.nity  with 
which  bending  dov/n,  he  addressed  a  short,  thick-legged  boy, 
who  all  the  while  was  exceednigly  awed  and  awkward.  Cer- 
tainly "  mejital  power  ajidcorporeal  labor"  must  have  alarm.ed 
the  poor  boy,  in  the  same  degree  that  a  worthy  magistrate 
of  this  nineteenth  century  once  terrified  a  hapless  prisoner. 
The  man  had  been  convicted  summarily  during  the  absence 
of  this  magistrate,  who,  on  coming  into  the  justice  room,  de- 
sired to  be  informed  of  the  evidence  against  him,  in  order 
that  he  might  know  that  the  sentence  of  imprisonment  was 
just.  Having  found  it  to  be  so,  he  addressed  the  prisoner, 
and  in  his  usual  emphatic  tone  declared  to  him,  that  "he 
richly  deserved  to  be  incarcerated.'"  The  unfortunate  man, 
who  thought  that  nothing  short  of  being  impaled  alive  could 
be  meant,  or  some  other  dreadful  species  of  laceration,  was 
glad  enough,  awe-stricken  as  he  was,  to  be  removed  with 
whole  skin  and  bones  to  the  county  jail. 


CO  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

In  the  case  of  a  clergyman's  daughter,  who  had  been  re- 
duced to  misery  through  an  unfortunate  marriage,  he  writes 
to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hamilton,  "in  favor  of  one  who  has  very 
little  ability  to  speak  for  herself."  He  had  known  her  for 
many  years,  and  concludes  his  letter:  "Her  case  admits  of 
little  deliberation  :  she  is  turned  out  of  her  lodging  into  the 
street.  What  my  condition  allows  me  to  do  for  her,  I  have 
already  done  ;  and  having  no  friend,  she  can  have  recourse 
only  to  the  parish."  On  this,  and  other  notes  of  a  charita- 
ble nature,  addressed  to  this  clergyman,  to  whom  he  says, 
"You  do  every  thing  that  is  liberal  and  kind,"  the  son  of 
Dr.  Hamilton  observes,  "  They  are  of  no  farther  interest, 
than  as  showing  the  goodness  of  Johnson's  heart,  and  the 
spirit  with  which  he  entered  into  the  cause  and  interests  of 
an  individual  in  distress,  when  he  was  almost  on  the  bed  of 
sickness  and  death  himself." 

It  appears  from  another  note  at  this  time,  that  Johnson 
had,  on  the  application  of  Miss  Reynolds,  frequently  relieved 
other  poor  persons  than  those  with  whose  misery  or  poverty 
he  had  himself  become  acquainted.  Neither  did  loss  of 
character  altogether  prevent  the  flowing  forth  of  his  charity. 
Boswell  records:  "His  generous  humanity  to  the  miserable 
was  almost  beyond  example.  The  following  instance  is  well 
attested  :  coming  home  late  one  night,  he  found  a  poor  woman 
lying  in  the  street,  so  much  exhausted  that  she  could  not 
walk ;  he  took  her  upon  his  back,  and  carried  her  to  his 
house,  where  he  discovered  that  she  was  one  of  those  wretch- 
ed females  who  had  fallen  into  the  lowest  state  of  vice,  pov- 
erty and  disease.  Instead  of  harshly  upbraiding  her,  he  had 
her  taken  care  of  Avith  all  tenderness  for  a  long  time,  at  a 
considerable  expense,  till  she  was  restored  to  health,  and  en- 
deavored to  put  her  into  a  virtuous  way  of  living.  "=*     This  is 

*  In  the  Rambler  (No.  107,  vol.  ii.  p.  213)  v/e  find  these  remarks 
from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Johnson  : 

"  It  can  not  be  doubted  but  that  numbers  follow  this  dreadful  course 
of  life,  with  shame,  horror,  and  regret ;  but  where  can  they  hope  for 
refuge  ?  '  The  u-orld  is  not  their  friend,  nor  the  ivorWs  law.^  Their 
sighs,  and  tears,  and  groans,  are  criminal  in  the  eyes  of  their  tyrants, 
the  bully  and  the  bawd,  who  fatten  on  their  misery,  and  threaten  them 
with  want  or  a  jail  if  thev  show  the  least  design  of  escaping  from  their 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  61 

as  it  should  be,  for  the  Almighty  himself  is  kind  to  the  un- 
thankful and  the  evil.  The  sterner  moralist  may  confine 
himself  to  too  narrow  an  idea  of  duty,  and  so  act  upon  it 
until  no  room  for  mercy  be  left  in  his  mind  ;  and  if  mercy 
were  shut  out,  where  would  any  of  the  human  race  be  ?  We 
are  all  transgressors,  but  God  is  kind  to  us — God  is  provoked 
every  day,  but  every  day  He  is  forgiving  us.  If  the  Al- 
mighty preferred  a  harsh  sense  of  duty  and  justice  rather 
than  a  loving  one  of  mercy  and  forgiveness,  where  should 
we  be  ?  Oh  let  us  ever  remember  with  the  moralizing  poet, 
that, 

"  The  right  too  rigid  hardens  into  wrong  !" 

It  is  when  an  offense  has  been  committed,  when  the  of- 
fender is  before  us,  and  when  his  transgression  and  trespass 
have  placed  him  entirely  in  our  power — it  is  then  alone  that 
mercy  can  be  shown  :  and  we  should  be  careful  how  we  let 
slip  the  gracious  opportunity  afforded  to  us.  Certainly  we 
must  prefer  those  v/ho  are  of  the  household  of  faith,  and  who 
live  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  separate  from  sinners,  by  the 
grace  of  God  :  yet  never  let  us  be  tempted  to  cast  those  of 
another  sort  quite  away.  Let  us  be  sure  it  is  the  safest  and 
noblest  part  to  be  helpers  of  all.  Who  knows  but  what  our 
temporal  kindness  may  win  the  heart  of  a  wicked  man  ; 
and  while  we  "give  an  alms,  we  may,  in  some  sense,  bestow 
a  heaven  too?"  Oar  charity  must  not  feed  vice,  and  we 
should  take  care  lest  we  be  imposed  on ;  but  still,  we  should 
be  especially  heedful  how  we  become  the  executioners  of  dis- 
tress and  want  upon  any  man,  though  he  be  as  evil  as  he  is 
needy  :  nay,  we  must  positively  seek  to  do  him  good.    "Happy 

bondage.  '  To  wipe  all  tears  from  off  all  faces,'  is  a  task  too  hard  for 
mortals  ;  but  to  alleviate  misfortunes  is  often  within  the  most  limited 
power  :  yet  the  opportunities  which  every  day  affords  of  relieving  the 
most  wretched  of  human  beings  are  overlooked  and  neglected,  with  equal 
disregard  of  policy  and  goodness." 

This  paper  bears  the  date  of  March  26,  1751  :  but  it  is  not  possible 
to  ascertain  the  precise  period  in  which  this  act  of  humanity  occurred. 
It  happened  during  the  time  of  Mrs.  Desmoulins's  sojourn  at  his  hos- 
pitable house,  and  probably  several  years  after  the  article  in  the  Ram- 
bler was  written. 


C2  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

I,"  exclaims  a  sound  divine,  "if  I  may  so  cheaply  bestow  a 
double  life  of  body  and  of  soul,"  Alas,  and  alas  I  there  is  much 
the  very  reverse  of  this  passing  daily  and  hourly  in  the  world ; 
and  too  many,  if  not  hardened,  yet  become  tied  and  bound 
by  too  strong  a  chain  to  their  sins. 

The  same  kind  of  ill-feeling  is  apparent,  too  often,  among 
religious  disputants — there  is  no  charity  bestowed  on  an  an- 
tagonist. Bishop  Sanderson  has  an  admirable  sermon*  on 
the  want  of  charity  in  Papists  and  Puritans  toward  Church- 
of-England-men — "  as  if,"  he  says  of  the  latter,  "  all  but 
themselves  were  scarce  to  be  owned  either  as  brethren,  or 
professors,  or  Christians  or  saints,  or  godly  men ;"  all 
which  names  they  appropriate  to  themselves  I 

*  Sanderson's  Sermons,  p.  63,  preached  in  1633- 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CONTINUED    INSTANCES. 

In  prosecuting  the  great  work  of  his  English  Dictionary, 
Dr.  Johnson  employed  six  amanuenses,  and  "  to  all  these 
painful  laborers,"  says  Boswell,  "  he  showed  a  never  ceasing 
kindness,  so  far  as  they  stood  in  need  of  it."  For  Sheils, 
who  died  of  a  consumption,  "  he  had  much  tenderness  ;"  but 
of  his  kindness  to  Macbean  we  have  the  fullest  account.  For 
him  Johnson  wrote  a  preface  to  a  work  on  ancient  Geography ; 
and  very  many  years  afterward  obtained  admission  for  him 
as  a  poor  brother  into  the  Charter  House,  by  an  application 
to  Lord  Thurlow  ;  and  here  we  find  him  again  writing  to 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Vyse,  as  he  had  before  done  in  the  case  of 
De  Groot,  the  nephew,  or  grandson,  of  Grotius.  He  states 
that  he  is  one  of  his  old  friends,  a  man  of  great  learning, 
and  "being  a  modest  scholar,  will  escape  embarrassment"  (in 
attending  before  the  Archbishop),  "  if  you  are  so  kind  as  to 
introduce  him,  by  which  you  will  do  a  kindness  to  a  man  of 
great  merit,"  &c.  Nearly  four  years  after  this  deed  of  charity, 
he  writes,  "  A  message  came  to  me  yesterday  to  tell  me  that 
Macbean  is  dead,  after  three  days  of  illness.  He  was  one 
of  those  who,  as  Swift  says,  stood  as  a  screen  betiveen  me 
and  death.  He  has,  I  hope,  made  a  good  exchange.  He 
was  very  pious  :  he  was  very  innocent  :  he  did  no  ill  :  and 
of  doing  good  a  continual  tenor  of  distress  allowed  him  few 
opportunities  ;  he  was  very  highly  esteemed  in  the  Charter 
House."  Macbean  was  indeed  poor,  for  after  being  several 
years  librarian  to  the  Duke  of  Argyle,  he  was  left  without 
a  shilling  :  it  is  gratifying  to  observe  that  Johnson  lost  not 
sight  of  him  after  he  had  entered  this  welcome  asylum. 
The  screen  heticeen  me  and  death  must  allude  to  his  being 
the  oldest  surviving  friend  of  Dr.  Johnson's — and  Johnson  died 
in  the  same  year.     The  death  of  each  friend  of  our  early  years 


64  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUiMANITY. 

must  be  a  memento  mori  to  us,  but  when  it  comes  to  the 
last  remaining  one,  the  fact  which  the  warning  serves  to 
remind  us  of  must  be  nigh  at  hand.  Would  that  Johnson 
could  have,  at  this  time,  spoken  in  the  language  of  Cicero, 
when,  on  lamenting  the  death  of  Scipio,  he  found  other  con- 
solation than  in  the  remembrance  of  his  beloved  friend's  vir- 
tues !  "  Were  I  totally  deprived,"  he  says,  "of  these  sooth- 
ing reflections,  viy  age,  however,  ivould  afford  me  great 
consolation :  as  I  can  not,  by  the  common  course  of  nature, 
long  be  separated  from  him." 

Johnson's  charity  commenced  with  his  earliest  years  of 
manhood  and  only  ceased  with  his  death.  Boyse,  the  poet,  one 
of  his  very  early  companions,  was  assisted  by  him.  On  one 
occasion  Johnson  collected  a  sum  to  redeem  his  friend's  clothes 
from  the  hands  of  the  pawnbroker  ;  and  "  the  sum,"  said 
Johnson,  "  was  collected  by  sixpences,  at  a  time  when  to  m,e 
sixj)e7ice  was  a  serious  consideration!'  His  very  last  words 
on  his  death-bed  were  those  of  kindness  and  blessing  to  one 
of  his  fellow  mortals. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  and  continued  acts  of  kind- 
ness in  Dr.  Johnson's  life,  was  that  which  opened  his  house 
as  a  residence  to  several  persons  of  indigent  circumstances. 
Let  us  first  tell  the  case  of  Mrs.  Williams.  She  was  the 
dauo-hter  of  a  Welsh  physician,  and  excited  the  compassion 
of  Dr.  Johnson,  on  coming  to  London  to  have  an  operation 
performed  on  her  eyes.  He  took  her  into  his  house  for  the 
greater  convenience  in  this  performance,  and,  on  its  failure 
(for  she  became  totally  blind),  he  never  desired,  so  long  as 
he  was  in  possession  of  a  house,  that  she  should  depart  from 
under  its  roof.  Sir  John  Hawkins,  Lady  Knight,  Miss  Haw- 
kins, and  Bosweli,  all  speak  highly  of  her  talent  and  pleasing 
conversation ;  and  so  great  was  her  judgment,  that  the  former 
asserts,  "  Johnson,  in  many  exigencies,  found  her  an  able 
counselor,  and  seldom  showed  his  wisdom  more  than  when 
he  hearkened  to  her  advice."  In  return,  however,  the  knight 
asserts,  she  received  inestimable  advantages  from  her  inter- 
course with  Johnson.  He  himself  says  of  her,  "  Her  curiosity 
was  universal,  her  knowledge  was  very  extensive,  and  she 
Fustained  forty  years  of  misery  with  steady  fortitude."     Han- 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  65 

nah  More,  in  describing-  a  visit  to  Dr  Johnson's  house,  =^  after 
saying,  "  Can  you  picture  to  yourselves  the  palpitation  of  our 
hearts  as  we  approached  his  mansion  ?" — observes,  "  Mrs. 
Williams,  the  blind  poet,  who  lives  with  him,  was  introduced 
to  us.  She  is  engaging  in  her  manners,  her  conversation 
lively  and  entertaining."  With  all  this  praise  in  her  favor, 
we  must  be  sorry  to  find  Chalmers  speaking  of  her  temper 
as  being  "  far  from  pleasant,"  and  of  her  "  fretful  and  peevish 
manner,"  under  the  roof  of  one  by  whom  she  was  "  protected 
and  cheered  by  every  act  of  kindness  and  tenderness  which 
he  could  have  showed  to  the  nearest  relation."! 

She  was  poor,  and  mainly  supported  by  the  voluntary  con- 
tributions of  others.  Dr.  Johnson  obtained  for  her  pecuniary 
aid  from  Mrs.  Montague  (a  lady  whom  he  solicited  also  on 
behalf  of  a  Mrs.  Ogle,  Davies,  a  bankrupt  bookseller,  &c.) ; 
from  Garrick  also  he  asked  a  benefit-night  at  the  theatre, 
and  was  eager  in  disposing  of  the  tickets — (from  this  she  de- 
rived .£200);  and  he  greatly  assisted  her  in  some  literary 
undertakings  ;  Sir  John  Hawkins  stating,  that  by  her  quarto 
volume  of  "Miscellanies,"  to  which  Dr.  Johnson  was  known 
to  contribute  much  from  his  pen,  she  increased  her  little  fund 
to  three  hundred  pounds.  Lady  Knight  thinks,  that,  ultimate- 
ly, she  possessed  an  annual  income  of  about  thirty-five  or  forty 
pounds  a  year.  This,  which  was  partly  obtained  by  Johnson's 
exertions  on  her  behalf,  was  greatly  aided  by  his  unceasing 
kindness  to  her  throughout  her  free  abode  in  his  house  ;  and 
we  can  perceive  that  his  magnanimous  spirit  prompted  him  to 
treat  her  with  as  much  politeness  and  humane  consideration 
as  though  she  had  been  a  lady  of  the  first  quality  and  wealth. 

But,  with  all  the  alleviations  provided  for  her,  and  with 
much  cheerfulness  under  the  sad  deprivation  of  sight,  she 
seems  to  have  been  of  an  irritable  and  peevish  temper.  All 
agree  in  their  testimony  of  this,  though  some  endeavor  to 
palliate  it.  She  would  frequently  quarrel  with  Johnson's 
favorite  negro  servant,  and  then  would  taunt  him  with  the 

*  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  49. 

t  Alexander  Chalmers's  Biographical  Dictionary,  vol.  xix.  pp.  59- 
64.  Johnson  himself  afterward  proves  the  truth  of  Chalmers's  state- 
ment. 


66  DR.   JOHNSON'S    HUMANITY. 

money  spent  on  Barber's  education,  saying,  This  is  your  scholar, 
on  whose  education  you  have  spent  X30U."  On  one  occa- 
sion, Boswell,  who  had  long  observed  her  asperity  of  manner, 
says,  "  Mrs.  Williams  was  very  peevish  ;  and  I  wondered 
at  Johnson's  patience  with  her  now,  as  I  had  often  done  on 
similar  occasions.  The  truth  is,  that  his  humane  consider- 
ation of  the  forlorn  and  indigent  state  in  which  this  lady 
was  left  by  her  father,  induced  him  to  treat  her  with  the 
utmost  tenderness r  Johnson  himself  writes  of  her,  when  he 
had  procured  her  accommodation  in  the  country,  on  account 
of  illness,  "Age,  sickness,  and  pride,  have  made  her  so 
peevish,  that  I  was  forced  to  bribe  the  maid  to  stay  with  her 
by  a  stipulation  of  half-a-crown  a  week  over  her  wages." 
He  had  supplied  her  with  all  conveniences  to  make  her  ex- 
cursion and  abode  pleasant  and  useful.  The  next  year,  in  a 
letter  to  Mrs.  Thrale,  he  writes :  "  Williams  hates  every  body ; 
Levett  hates  Desmoulins,  and  does  not  love  Williams  ;  Des- 
moulins  hates  them  both  ;  Poll  (Miss  Carmichael)  loves  none 
of  them."  During  her  illness  he  ever  spoke  tenderly  of  her,  and 
in  his  diary  this  afiecting  record  is  made,  "  This  has  been  a  day 
of  great  emotion  ;  the  office  of  the  Communion  for  the  Sick  has 
been  performed  in  poor  Mrs.  Williams's  chamber.      At  home 

I  see  almost  all  my  companions  dead  or  dying I  hope 

that  I  shall  learn  to  die  as  dear  Williams  is  dying,  who  was 
very  cheerful  before  and  after  this  awful  solemnity,  and  seems 
to  resign  herself  with  calmness  and  hope  upon  eternal  mercy." 
To  Doctor  Brocklesby  he  writes  :  "Be  so  kind  as  to  continue 
your  attention  to  Mrs.  Williams,  It  is  a  great  consolation 
to  the  well,  and  still  greater  to  the  sick,  that  they  find  them- 
selves not  neglected  ;  and  I  know  that  you  will  he  desirous 
of  giving  comfort,  even  tvhere  you  have  no  great  hope  of 
giving  help.''^  On  hearing  of  her  death,  he  was  much  af- 
fected, and  composed  a  solemn  prayer  on  the  event.  To  Mrs. 
Montague,  who  had  allowed  her  a  pension,  he  writes  to  com- 
municate the  tidings  of  her  death,  and  says,  "  You  have, 
madam,  the  satisfaction  of  having  alleviated  the  sufferings  of 
a  woman  of  great  merit,  both  intellectual  and  moral."  To 
Mr.  Langton,  he  writes,  "I  have  lost  a  companion  (Mrs. 
Williams),  to  whom  I  have  had  recourse  for  domestic  amuse- 


DR.  JOHNSON'S   HUx\IANITY.  67 

meat  for  thirty  years,  and  whose  variety  of  knowledge  never 
was  exhausted  ;  and  now  return  to  a  habitation  vacant  and 
desolate."  And  in  another  to  the  same  friend  he  alludes  to 
Mrs.  Williams,  "whose  death,  following  that  of  Levett,  has 
now  made  my  house  a  solitude.  She  left  her  little  substance 
to  a  charity  school.  She  is,  I  hope,  where  there  is  neither  dark- 
ness" (in  reference  to  her  blindness),  "nor  want,  nor  sorrow." 
Mrs.  Desmoulins  was  another  inmate  of  Dr.  Johnson's 
house,  and  a  recipient  of  his  charity ;  she  also  was  the  daughter 
of  a  physician,  who  left  a  large  family  in  poverty,  she  herself 
having  made  an  imprudent  marriage,  and  now  become  a 
widow.  Johnson  allowed  her  half-a-guinea  a  week,  above 
a  twelfth  part  of  his  pension,  and  also  lodged  her  daughter 
under  his  roof  On  Good  Friday,  1779,  we  find  this  record 
in  his  diary  :  "  I  maintain  Mrs.  Desmoulins  and  her  daughter ; 
other  good  of  myself  I  know  not  where  to  find,  except  a  little 
charity."  We  find  him  also  writing  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Vyse, 
to  ask  for  the  situation  of  matron  of  the  Chartreux  for  her, 
and  he  says,  "  She  is  in  great  distress,  and  therefore  may  prob- 
ably receive  the  benefit  of  a  charitable  foundation."  Such  an 
appointment  (which  she  did  not  obtain)  would  have  relieved 
Dr.  Johnson,  but  at  the  same  time,  he  was  well  aware  that 
it  would  have  added  to  her  comfort  and  self-respect,  albeit  to 
be  a  pensioner  of  Dr.  Johnson's  was  not  without  honor.  She 
did  not  live  altogether  in  peace  with  the  other  inmates,  for 
Johnson  records,  "  To-day  Mrs.  Williams  and  Mrs.  Desmoulins 
had  a  scold,  and  Williams  was  going  away  ;  but  I  bid  her 
not  turn  tail,  and  she  came  back,  and  rather  got  the  upper 
hand."  Again,  to  Mrs.  Thrale  he  writes  :  "Mr.  Levett  and 
Mrs.  Desmoulins  have  vowed  eternal  hate."  Yet  Johnson, 
when  she  was  absent,  regretted  the  loss  of  her  society,  and  she, 
to  the  last,  was  a  faithful  friend  to  him,  sitting  in  his  sick 
chamber  at  the  moment  of  his  death.  This  conduct  does 
not  justify  a  remark  of  Boswell's,  who,  when  speaking  of  her 
reception  under  Johnson's  roof,  says,  "whose  doors  were  always 
open  to  the  unfortunate,  and  who  well  observed  the  precept 
of  the  Gospel,  for  he  was  kind  to  the  iinthojikful  and  to  the 
evil."  Mrs.  Desmoulins,  whatever  may  have  been  her 
transitory  irritations,  was  neither  unthankful  nor  evil. 


68  DR.  JOHNSON'S   HUMANITY. 

Passing  over  Miss  Carmichael,  of  whom  so  little  is  known, 
come  we  to  the  unfortunate  Mr.  Robert  Levett.  In  the 
story  of  this  man  there  is  much  of  mingled  goodness  and 
romance.  An  Englishman  by  birth,  and  the  eldest  of  ten 
children,  he  commenced  life  as  a  waiter  at  a  coffee-house  in 
Paris, where  some  surgeons,  who  frequented  the  house,  took  a 
liking  to  him,  themselves  taught  him  something  of  their  art, 
and  obtained  free  admission  for  him  to  the  lectures  of  their 
ablest  professors  in  pharmacy  and  anatomy.  In  London  he 
became  a  popular  practitioner  among  the  humbler  classes, 
who,  of  course,  could  afford  to  pay  him  only  very  small  sums, 
and  often  paid  him  in  kind.  As  regards  his  marriage,  he 
was  made  the  victim  of  an  artful  and  profligate  woman,  and 
yet  he  was  nearly  sixty  years  of  age  at  this  time.  Johnson 
writes  to  Baretti,  "Levett  is  lately  married;  not  without 
much  suspicion  that  he  has  been  wretchedly  cheated  in  his 
match  ; "  and  he  used  further  to  say,  that  compared  with  the 
marvels  of  this  transaction,  the  Arabian  Nights  seemed 
familiar  occurrences.  It  appears  that  she  persuaded  Levett, 
although  he  became  acquainted  with  her  under  the  poorest 
circumstances,  that  she  was  unrighteously  kept  out  of  a  large 
fortune  ;  yet,  before  he  had  been  married  four  months,  a  writ 
was  taken  out  against  him  for  debts  contracted  by  her.  Then 
he  was  obliged  to  be  secreted,  but  ere  long  she  ran  away 
from  him,  was  tried  at  the  Old  Bailey  for  robbery,  acquitted, 
and  a  separation  took  place  ;  from  that  time,  Johnson  taking 
him  to  his  home.  All  this  misfortune  only  moved  the  com- 
passionate heart  of  Johnson  :  and  he  was  remarkable  for 
standing  by  those  who  were  distressed,  and  relieving  those 
who  could  never  recompense  him.  He  seems  to  have  been 
a  man  of  ungainly  appearance,  for  Boswell  contrasts  the 
"awkward  and  uncouth  Robert  Levett"  with  the  brilliant 
Colonel  Forester,  of  the  Guards,  who  wrote  the  "  Polite 
Philosopher,"  when  showing  that  Dr.  Johnson  associated 
with  persons  most  widely  different  in  manners,  abilities,  rank, 
and  accomplishments  ;  at  the  same  time,  Boswell  thought 
well  of  him,  for,  in  a  letter  to  Johnson,  he  says,  "I  wish 
many  happy  years  to  good  Mr.  Levett,  who,  I  suppose,  holds 
his  usual  place  at  your  breakfast  table."     Levett  seems  to 


DR.  JOHNSON'S   HUMANITY.  69 

have  held  the  matutinal  appointment  of  lord  of  the  tea-kettle, 
and  in  the  absence  of  the  other  inmates,  to  have  become  tea- 
maker.  Johnson,  who  always  treated  him  with  "marked 
courtesy,"  as  though  he  was  an  equal  or  more,  and  when 
absent,  writing  kindly  to  him,  would  observe,  that  "Levett 
was  indebted  to  him  for  nothing  more  than  house-room,  his 
share  in  a  penny  loaf  at  breakfast,  and  now  and  then  a 
dinner  on  a  Sunday."  This  was  no  mean  debt,  but  how  in- 
significant when  compared  with  that  contracted  from  the 
constant  experience  of  Johnson's  condescension  and  courtesy. 
He  resided  for  about  twenty  years  under  this  great  man's 
roof,  "who,"  says  Stevens,  "never  wished  him  to  be  regard- 
ed as  an  inferior,  or  treated  him  like  a  dependent."  His 
temper,  notwithstanding,  seems  to  have  been  irritable,  and 
perhaps  sullen.  It  has  already  been  seen  that  "  Levett  hates 
Desmoulins  :  "  and  we  find  again  Dr.  Johnson  himself  saying, 
"Mr.  Levett  and  Mrs.  Desmoulins  have  vowed  eternal  hate. 
Levett  is  the  more  insidioits,  and  wants  me  to  turn  her  out:'" 
and  again,  "Mrs.  Williams  is  come  home  better,  and  the 
habitation  is  all  concord  and  harmony,  only  Mr.  Levett  har- 
bors discontent.'^  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  Mrs. 
Williams  and  Mrs.  Desmoulins  had  a  violent  quarrel,  so  con- 
tinually was  dissension  arising  among  those  who  may  be  almost 
termed  his  pensioners. 

Yet  Johnson  held  him  in  great  esteem,  and  regretted  him 
in  his  death.  To  Mr.  Laurence  he  communicates  the  intel- 
ligence of  "  our  old  friend's"  death,  and  remarks  :  "  So  has 
ended  the  long  life  of  a  very  useful,  and  very  blameless  man." 
To  Mrs.  Thrale  he  writes,  "  My  home  has  lost  Levett ;  a 
man  who  took  interest  in  every  thing,  and  therefore  ready  at 
conversation  ;"  to  Mrs.  Porter,  "  The  loss  of  friends  will  be 
felt,  and  poor  Levett  has  been  a  faithful  adherent  for  thirty 
years ;"  and  to  Captain  Langton,  "  At  night,  at  Mrs. 
Thrale's,  as  I  was  musing  m  my  chamber,  I  thought,  with 
uncommon  earnestness,  that,  however  I  might  alter  my  mode 
of  life,  or  whithersoever  I  might  remove,  I  would  endeavor 
to  retain  Levett  about  me  :  in  the  morning  my  servant 
brought  me  word  that  Levett  was  called  to  another  state  ;  a 
state  for  which,  I  think,  he  was  not  unprepared,  for  ho  was 


70  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

very  useful  to  the  poor.  How  niuch'soever  I  valued  him,  I 
now  wished  that  I  had  valued  him  more."  We  must  con- 
strue the  words,  ''for  he  was  very  useful  to  the  poor,"  in  con- 
junction with  Dr.  Johnson's  belief  in  the  merits  and  satisfac- 
tion of  our  Lord's  death,  and  then  we  shall  not  be  led  astray 
by  them.  Poor  Levett  died  very  suddenly.  "  There  passed 
not,  I  believe,"  says  Johnson,  "  a  minute  between  health  and 
death."  To  others,  he  affectionately  mentioned  the  decease 
of  Levett ;  but  the  man  is  immortalized  rather  by  Johnson's 
pathetic  verses,  the  first  three  stanzas  of  which  may  be  ap- 
propriately quoted  here  : 

"  Condemn'd  to  Hope's  delusive  mine, 
As  on  we  toil  from  day  to  day, 
By  sudden  blast  or  slow  decline 
Our  social  comforts  drop  aivay. 

"  Well  tried  through  many  a  varying  year^ 
See  Levett  to  the  grave  descend  / 
Officious,  innocent,  sincere, 

Of  every  friendless  na7ne  the  friend. 

"  Yet  still  he  fills  affection's  eye, 

Obscurely  wise  and  coarsely  kind  : 
Nor,  letter' d  arrogance,  deny 
Thy  praise  to  merit  unrefined." 

Much  as  these  verses  may  be  written  to  the  praise  of  poor 
Levett,  yet  how  much  more  do  they,  unwittingly,  commem- 
orate the  benevolent  heart  of  the  poet,  of  whom  it  had  many 
years  before  been  said,  after  the  manner  of  Shakspeare's  for- 
ofivinof  cardinal,  when  accused  of  showinof  kindness  to  a  man 
of  reported  bad  character,  "  He  is  now  become  miserable, 
and  that  insures  the  protection  of  Johnson."  The  following 
entry  has  been  found  in  one  of  his  memorandum  books  : 
"  January  20,  Sunday,  Robert  Levett  was  buried  in  the 
church-yard  of  Bridewell,  between  one  and  two  in  the  after- 
noon. He  died  on  Thursday,  17th,  about  seven  the  morning, 
by  an  instantaneous  death.  He  tvas  an  old  and  faithful 
friend  :  I  have  known  him  from  about  1746.  Cojiunendavi. 
May  God  have  mercy  on  him  !  May  He  have  mercy  on 
me!" 

Li  the  "  Rambler"  (No.  54),  Dr.  Johnson  had  written 


DR.  JOHNSOxN'S  HUMANITY.  71 

long  before,  "  When,  a  friend  is  carried  to  his  grave,  we  at 
once  find  excuses  for  every  weakness,  and  paUiations  of  every 

fault We  consider,  with  the  most  afflictive  anguish, 

the  pain  which  we  have  given,  and  now  can  not  alleviate, 
and  the  losses  which  we  have  caused,  and  now  can  not  re- 
pair  ! 

The  notice  of  the  inmates  of  Dr.  Johnson's  dwelling  would 
not  be  complete  without  a  brief  sketch  of  Francis  Barber,  his 
faithful  servant,  almost  uninterruptedly,  for  nearly  thirty-two 
years.  He  was  a  negro,  brought  from  Jamaica  to  this 
country  by  Colonel  Bathurst,  who,  in  his  will,  left  him  his 
freedom  :  and  Johnson,  who  was  probably  poor  at  this  time, 
seems  to  have  taken  him  out  of  compassion  for  his  forlorn 
state,  as  well  as  out  of  love  to  his  intimate  friend  Dr. 
Bathurst,  son  of  the  colonel.  It  has  been  seen  that  Dr. 
Johnson  put  him  to  school,  often  wrote  in  terms  of  great 
kindness  to  him,  and  read  and  prayed  with  him.  Twice, 
through  some  wayward  fancy,  he  left  his  master,  but  was 
right  glad  to  get  into  his  old  quarters  again  :  for  even  when 
separated  Johnson  sought  to  do  him  good  ;.  and  the  servant 
could  not  refrain  from  an  occasional  visit  to  his  old  master's 
house.  He,  too,  when  comfortably  ensconced  in  his  former 
service,  did  not  escape  a  participation  in  the  domestic  dissen- 
sions, for  we  find  that  Johnson  used  to  dread  "  having  his 
ears  filled  with  the  complaints  of  Mrs.  Williams,  of  Frank's 
neglect  of  his  duty,  and  inattention  to  the  interests  of  his 
master,  and  of  Frank  against  Mrs.  Williams,  for  the  author- 
ity she  assumed  over  him,  and  excercised  with  an  unwar- 
rantable severity."  It  may  easily  be  guessed  on  whose  side 
the  fault  most  lay,  yet  Johnson  would  have  been  the  first  to 
rebuke  any  impertinence  offered  to  poor,  ill-tempered  Mrs. 
Williams.  Bos  well  seems  to  have  entertained  a  good  opinion 
of  Frank,  saying,  on  one  occasion,  "  I  was  happy  to  find  my- 
self again  in  my  friend's  study,  and  was  glad  to  see  my  old 
acquaintance.  Mr.  Francis  Barber."  In  the  famous  picture 
of  "  A  Literary  party  at  Sir  Joshua  ileynolds's,"  Barber  is 
represented  in  his  capacity  of  servant,  and  one  can  not  help 
thinking  but  that  he,  in  common  with  the  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  that   evening's  hospitality,  even  while  bringing  in 


72  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

more  wine,  is  casting  his  eyes  toward  his  mas1:er,  and  hsten- 
ing  to  his  rare  discourse. 

Francis  Barber  had  always  been  treated  by  Johnson  as 
«'  a  humble  friend,"  and  he  was  faithful  to  the  last.  His 
master,  Avith  his  usual  generous  feeling,  was  mindful  of  him 
in  his  Avill,  and  having  previously  asked  Dr.  Brocklesby, 
what  would  be  a  proper  annuity  to  a  favorite  servant,  and 
the  doctor  answering  that  much  depended  on  the  circum- 
stances of  the  master,  and  that  fifty  pounds  per  annum  would 
be  considered  a  handsome  reward  from  a  nobleman  :  "  Then," 
said  Johnson,  "  shall  I  be  nobilhswius,  for  I  mean  to  leave 
Frank  seventy  pounds  a  year,  and  I  desire  you  to  tell  him 
so."  He  did  remember  him  handsomely  in  his  will,  and 
Barber  retired  to  Lichfield,  according  to  Dr.  Johnson's  re- 
quest, and  died,  in  the  year  1801,  in  the  Infirmary  at  Staf- 
ford, after  undergoing  a  painful  operation.* 

Thus  we  have  seen  something  of  Dr.  Johnson's  household, 
and  the  unfortunate  discord  reigning  therein  ;  all  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  his  humane  character  with  posterity.  "  The  dis- 
sensions," says  Mrs.  Piozzi,  "  of  the  many  odd  inhabitants  of 
his  house,  distressed  and  mortified  him  exceedingly.  He  was 
really  sometimes  afraid  of  going  home,  because  he  was  so  sure 
to  be  met  at  the  door  with  numberless  complaints ;  and  he 
used  to  lament  that  they  made  his  life  miserable  from  the 
vnpossibility  lie  found  of  making  theirs  happij,  when  every 
favor  he  bestowed  on  one  was  wormwood  to  the  rest."  And 
how  noble  his  forgiveness  as  well  as  his  forbearance  I  "If, 
however,"  continues  this  lady,  '« I  ventured  to  blame  their 
ingratitude,  and  condemn  their  conduct,  he  tvould  instantly 
set  about  softening  the  one,  and  justifying  the  other  ;  and 
finished  commonly  by  telling  me,  that  I  knew  not  how  to 
make  allowances  for  situations  I  never  experienced."  Sir 
John  Hawkins  draws  a  still  more  distressing  picture  of  these 
"  enemies  to  his  peace,"  and  their  insults,  "  all  which  he 
chose  to  endure,  rather  than  put  an  end  to  their  clamors,  by 
ridding  his  home  of  such  thankless  and  troublesome  guests. 
Nay,"  adds  the  knight,  "  so  insensible  was  he  of  the  ingrati- 
tude of  those  whom  he  suffered  thus  to  hang  upon  him,  and 
*  See  Gentleman's  Maj::azine,  1793. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  73 

among  whom  he  may  be  said  to  have  divided  an  income 
ichich  teas  little  more  than  sufficient  f 07'  his  own  support, 
that  he  would  submit  to  reproach  and  personal  affront  from 
some  of  them  :  even  Levett  would  sometimes  insult  him  ; 
and  Mrs.  Williams,  in  her  paroxysms  of  rage,  has  been  known 
to  drive  him  from  her  presence."  And  to  Mrs.  Thrale  he 
himself  writes,  "  Mrs.  Williams  is  not  yet  returned :  but 
discord  and  discontent  reign  in  my  humble  habitation  as  in- 
the  palaces  of  monarchs."  How  incomparably  grand — how 
much  after  the  pattern,  though  still  at  an  infinite  distance, 
of  Deity  itself,  is  Dr.  Johnson's  conduct  in  these  instances  ! 
— when  we  know  the  full  power  of  ridding  and  avenging 
himself  of  these  rebellious  disturbers  that  was  at  his  com- 
mand ;  that  he  had  only  to  speak  the  word,  and  his  home 
had  become  peaceable ;  but,  alas  I  tltey  would  have  en- 
dured great  deprivation.  His  strong  mind  regarded  not  its 
own  discomfort,  so  long  as  temptation  drove  not  compassion 
from  his  heart.  Doubtless,  his  great  literary  pursuits  ob- 
tained for  him  but  a  partial  oblivion  of  these  domestic  broils, 
and  it  is  of  course  most  probable  that  he  had  often  conflicts 
within  himself  on  the  occasions  of  these  hostile  scenes.  Yet 
we  may  believe  that  a  perception  of  the  misery  that  would 
come  upon  these  persons,  did  they  once  forsake  the  shelter  of 
his  roof,  ever  prevented  the  denial  of  his  home  and  hospitality 
to  them  :  and  so  he  endured  with  consummate  patience  an 
evil  that  he  could  have  put  an  end  to,  had  not  the  far-seeing 
benevolence  of  his  heart  abhorred  the  summary  proceeding 
which  they,  as  it  were,  appeared  to  court ;  or,  at  all  events, 
the  one  wished  the  other  to  experience.  What  a  picture  is 
this  of  the  larger  world  of  ungrateful  men,  and  God  over 
all,  provoked  every  day  ! 

D 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FURTHER    INSTANCES. 

From  much  of  Dr.  Johnson's  conduct  in  other  ways,  we 
perceive  a  kindness  and  tenderness  of  disposition.      He  usually 
experienced  a  repentant  sorrow  on  depreciating  the  character 
of  others,  or  on  speaking-  sharply  to  them.      In  that  remark- 
able interview  with  George  the  Third  in  the  Queen's  Library 
at  Buckingham  House,   he,  in   conversation  with  the   king, 
exposed  an  error  of  Dr.  Hill,  who  was  really  a  sort  of  literary 
and  medical  quack.      However,  as  soon  as  he  began  to  dis- 
cover that  he  was  depreciating  the  man  in  the  eyes  of  his 
sovereign,  he  commenced  saying  something  in  his  favor,  and 
thus,  in  great   measure,  sought  to  remove  the  effect  of  what 
he  had  before,  yet  quite  truly,  spoken.      Boswell  mentions, 
that  he  had  heard  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  "  a  nice  and  delicate 
observer  of  manners,   particularly  remark,  that  when  upon 
any  occasion  Johnson  had  been  rough  to  any  person  in  com- 
pany, he  took  the  first  opportunity  of  reconciliation  by  drink- 
ing to  him,  or  addressing  his  discourse  to  him  ;"  if,  however, 
the  other  had  not  grace  to  accept  this  reconciliation,  then  it 
gave  him  no   more   concern.      We  have  an  instance  of  Dr. 
Johnson's   kindness,   in  this    manner,   handsomely  accepted. 
At  a  dinner  Johnson  had  spoken  roughly  to   Goldsmith,  as 
indeed  the  latter  somewhat  deserved  ;   yet,  on  meeting  in  the 
evening  at  the  club.  Dr.  Johnson  observed  Goldsmith  sitting 
silently,  and  evidently  sullen  under  the  reprimand.      He  per- 
ceived this,  and   said   aside  to  the  others,  "  I'll  make  Gold- 
smith forgive  me  ;"  and  then  called  to  him,  in  a  loud  voice, 
"  Dr.  Goldsmith,  something  passed  to-day  where   you  and  I 
dined  ;    I a^k  your ixvr don.''''      Goldsmith  answered,  placidly, 
"  It  must  be  much  from  you,  sir,  that  I  take  ill."      And  so 
at  once,  observes  Boswell,  the  difference  was  over,  and  they 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  75 

were  on  as  easy  terms  as  ever,  and  Goldsmith  rattled  away 
as  usual. 

Of  Goldsmith  we  may  say,  Nilfuit  unquam  sic  impar  sibi; 
and,  as  Machiavel  said  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  **  The  gravity 
of  his  life,  if  compared  with  its  levity,  must  make  him  appear 
a  composition  of  two  difierent  persons,  each  incompatible, 
and,  as  it  were,  impossible  to  be  joined  together."  In  the 
Life  of  Garrick  we  are  told  by  its  author,  "  The  Doctor  was 
a  perfect  heteroclite,  an  inexplicable  existence  in  creation  ;" 
at  one  time  all  envy  and  malice,  and  at  another  overflowing 
with  generosity  and  benevolence,  so  that  "  he  might  be  said 
to  consist  of  two  distinct  souls."  However,  we  are  told  that 
he  always  openly  spoke  his  mind — that  he  never  seriously 
formed  any  scheme,  or  joined  in  any  combination,  to  hurt 
any  man  living — that  he  ever  relieved  the  poor,  and  rather 
than  not  relieve  the  distressed,  he  would  borrow — and  when 
Baretti,  whom  he  greatly  disliked,  was  sent  by  Sir  John 
Fielding  to  Newgate,  on  a  charge  of  murder,  he  opened  his 
purse,  and  would  have  given  him  every  shilling  it  contained ; 
at  the  same  time  he  insisted  upon  going  in  the  coach  with 
him  to  his  place  of  confinement. 

The  author  of  this  book*  says,  "  The  first  man  of  the  age, 
who,  from  the  extensiveness  of  his  genius  and  benevolence  of 
his  mind,  is  superior  to  the  little  envy^  and  mean  jealousy 
which  adhere  so  closely  to  most  authors,  and  especially  to 
those  of  equivocal  merit,  took  pleasure  in  introducing  Dr. 
Goldsmith  to  his  intimate  friends,  persons  of  eminent  rank 
and  distinguished  abilities."  Yet  we  are  told  by  the  same 
authority,  of  Goldsmith,  that  when  "  his  great  literary  friend 
was  commended  in  his  hearing,  he  could  not  restrain  his 
uneasiness,  but  exclaimed,  in  a  kind  of  agony,  'No  more,  I 
desire  you  ;  you  harrow  up  my  soul.'  "  Johnson  well  knew 
the  envious  feeling  that  was  often  in  Goldsmith,  and  therefore 
the  more  observable  is  his  kindness  toward  him  ;  and  Gold- 
smith, as  we  have  seen,  could  express  himself  highly  of  Dr. 
Johnson.  It  may  be  observed,  that  the  being  envious  of 
another  does  not  derogate,  even  in  our  own  mind,  from  the 
dignity  or  excellence  of  that  other  ;  it  is  only  a  sign,  and  to 
*  The  Memoirs  of  DaviJ  Garrick,  by  Thomas  Davies. 


76  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

ourselves,  of  a  sense  of  our  inferiority  ;  so  that,  putting  the 
two  anecdotes  together.  Goldsmith  may  well  think  highly  of 
Dr.  Johnson,  and  still  be  impatient  of  hearing  him  praised. 
Few  men,  alas  I  pass  through  life  free  from  envy,  though  all 
would  disown  the  passion  ;  and  our  author  writes,  "  I  never 
knew  any  man  but  one  (Dr.  Johnson),  who  had  the  honor 
and  courage  to  confess  that  he  had  a  tincture  of  envy  in 
him." 

We  learn  from  Mrs.  Piozzi,  that  when  this  very  author 
(Thomas  Davies)  had  printed  some  compositions  of  Dr. 
Johnson's,  unknown  to  him,  the  Doctor  was  angry,  and  went 
up  to  London  to  speak  to  Davies  about  it.  At  his  return 
Mrs.  Thrale  asked  him  how  the  matter  ended.  "  Why," 
said  he,  "I  was  a  fierce  fellow,  and  pretended  to  be  very 
angry,  and  Thomas  was  a  good-natured  fellow,  and  pretended 
to  be  very  sorry  ;  so  there  the  matter  ended.  I  believe  the 
dog  loves  me  dearly.  '  Mr.  Thrale'  (turning  round  to  my 
husband),  '  what  shall  you  and  I  do  that  is  good  for  Tom 
Davies  ?  We  will  do  something  for  him,  to  be  sure.'  " 
The  fact  was,  Davies  was  a  poor  man  ;^  and  this  circum- 
stance at  once  turned  away  the  wrath  of  one  with  whom  he 
had  certainly  taken  a  very  great  liberty  ;  for  he  not  only 
published,  without  leave,  pieces  written  by  him,  but  he  also 
published,  together  with  these,  pieces  not  written  by  Dr. 
Johnson,  and  yet  sent  them  all  forth  as  though  composed  by 
"  the  Author  of  the  Rambler."  He  continued  to  love 
Davies  cordially.  "  One  day,"  says  Boswell,  "  when  he  had 
treated  him  with  too  much  asperity,  Tom,  who  was  not 
without  pride  and  spirit,  went  off  in  a  passion ;  but  he  had 
hardly  reached  home,  when  Frank,  who  had  been  sent  after 
him,  delivered  this  note  :  '  Come,  come,  dear  Davies,  I  am 
always  sorry  when  we  quarrel ;  send  me  word  that  we  are 
friends.'  "  Davies  himself  has  written  the  "  Life  of  Garrick," 
in  a  pleasing,  sensible,  kind-hearted  manner  ;  and  whenever 
he  alludes  therein  to  Dr.  Johnson,  it  is  in  terms  of  the  high- 
est admiration  and  praise. 

Very  trifling  things  indicate  the  kind  or  unkind  disposition 

*  See  Chalmers's  Biog.  Diet,  vol.  xix.  p.  66. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  77 

of  a  man.  Mr.  Beauclerk  had  a  portrait  of  Dr.  Johnson,  on. 
the  frame  of  which  these  words  were  inscribed  : 

"  In^enium  ingens 
Inculto  latet  hoc  sub  corporc." 

But  when  this  picture,  after  Mr.  Beauclerk's  death,  became 
the  property  of  Mr.  Langton,  the  words  were  removed. 
Johnson  said,  complacently,  "  It  was  kind  in  you  to  take  it 
off;"  and  then,  after  a  short  pause,  added,  '■'■  cuid  TWt  unkind 
in  him  to  put  it  on." 

Johnson  was  undoubtedly  severe  at  times,  and  especially 
stout  in  maintaining  an  argument  when  aware  that  he  was 
not  altogether  taking  the  best  side  ;  but  then,  this  was  for 
the  time  only,  for  he  would  take  an  opportunity  afterward 
of  confessing  himself  in  the  wrong.  Thus,  after  a  night's 
debate  of  this  kind,  he  accosted  Mr.  Morgan,  as  soon  as 
he  met  him  in  the  breakfast-room  next  morning  :  "  Sir,  I 
have  been  thinking  on  our  dispute  last  night :  you  were  in 
the  right.''''  Boswell,  endeavoring,  on  another  occasion,  to 
excuse  him,  offers  this  opinion  on  his  great  friend  :  "  Plia- 
bility of  address  I  conceive  to  be  inconsistent  with  that  ma- 
jestic power  of  mind  which  he  possesses,  and  which  produces 
such  noble  effects,  A  lofty  oak  will  not  bend  like  a  supple 
willow."  Yes,  but  why  should  "  majestic  power  of  mind" 
place  itself  in  the  predicament  of  requiring  "  pliability  of 
address"  in  order  to  extricate  itself,  albeit  such  pliability  be 
not  exercised  ?  Occasional  stubborness  of  mind,  and  a  habit 
of  giving  harsh  denials,  are  the  least  amiable  traits  in  John- 
son's greatly  benevolent  character ;  and  these  can  hardly  be 
excused. 

"  Johnson's  charity  to  the  poor,"  writes  Boswell,  "  was 
uniform  and  extensive,  both  from  inclination  and  principle." 
Like  Goldsmith,  when  he  had  exhausted  his  own  purse  in 
acts  of  liberality,  he  would  beg  for  others,  if  in  real  distress  ; 
this  '■'•  he  did  judiciously  as  well  as  humanely."  The  Rev. 
Dr.  Maxwell  says,  "  He  frequently  gave  all  the  silver  in  his 
pocket  to  the  poor,  who  watched  him  between  his  house  and 
the  tavern  where  he  dined."  "  Those,"  records  Miss  P>.ey- 
nolds,  "  who  knew  his  uniform  benevolence,  and  its  actua- 
ting principles — steady  virtue  and  true  holiness — will  readily 


78  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

agree  with  me,  that  peace  and  goodwill  toward  man  were 
the  natural  emanations  of  his  heart.  I  shall  never  forget 
the  impression,"  she  continues,  "  I  felt  in  Dr.  Johnson's 
favor,  the  first  time  I  was  in  his  company,  on  his  saying, 
that,  as  he  returned  to  his  lodgings  at  one  or  two  o'clock  in 
them  orning,  he  often  saw  poor  children  asleep  on  the  thresh- 
olds and  stalls,  and  that  he  icsed  to  imt  'pemiies  into  their 
hands  to  buy  them  a  breakfast''  "  And  this  at  a  time," 
observes  Croker,  "when  he  himself  was  living  on  pennies. '' 

Boswell  observes,  "  Johnson's  love  of  little  children,  which 
he  discovered  upon  all  occasions,  calling  them  '  pretty  dears,* 
and  giving  them  sweatmeats,  was  an  undoubted  proof  of  the 
real  humanity  and  gentleness  of  his  disposition." 

Retrenchment  in  charity  he  thought  should  be  the  last 
consideration  when  obliged  to  economize.  He  writes  to  Mrs. 
Thrale,  at  the  same  time  not  allowing  her  to  diminish  a  two- 
guinea  annual  subscription,  "  Whatever  reasons  you  have  for 
frugality,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  save  a  guinea  a  year  by 
withdrawing  it  from  a  public  charity."  But,  beneficent  as 
he  was  himself  in  almsgiving,  he  thought  it  better,  in  gen- 
eral, to  spend  money  than  to  give  it  away.  "  A  man,"  he 
said,  "  who  spends  his  money,  is  sure  he  is  doing  good  with 
it ;  he  is  not  so  sure  when  he  gives  it  away.  A  man  who 
spends  ten  thousand  a  year  will  do  more  good  than  a  man 
who  spends  two  thousand"  (in  industry)  "  and  gives  away 
eight." 

Many,  very  many  kind  things  did  Dr.  Johnson  write  and 
speak.  How  delighted  he  was  with  Boswell's  kindness  to  an 
old  man  of  eighty-eight,  whom  he  had  put  into  a  dwelling 
more  comfortable  and  suitable ;  how  he  also  besought  him  to 
be  a  kind  landlord  to  his  tenantry  I  With  what  pleasure  he 
hears  that  he  is  on  good  terms  with  his  father  !  "  Cultivate 
his  kindness,"  he  writes,  "  by  all  honest  and  manly  means. 

It  is  best  not  to  be  angry  ;  and  best,  in  the  next  place, 

to  be  quickly  reconciled.  May  you  and  your  father  pass  the 
remainder  of  your  time  in  reciprocal  benevolence  I"  Again, 
in  a  later  letter,  "  Please  him  as  much  as  you  can,  and  add 
no  pain  to  his  last  years'' 

To  another  correspondent,  Mr.  George  Strahan,  he  had 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  79 

before  said,  "  To  give  pain  ought  always  to  be  painful." 
What  a  golden  saying  I  "  Those  ^ho  have  loved  longest," 
he  tells  Mrs.  Thrale,  "  love  best."  "  A  friend  may  be  often 
found  and  lost  ;  but  an  old  friend  never  can  be  found."  He 
always  felt  severely  the  loss  of  old  friends,  and  says  in  a 
melancholy  manner  to  Mrs.  Strahan,  "  When  we  have  all 
done  all  that  we  can,  one  friend  must  in  time  lose  the  other  I" 
He  was  a  firm  friend  to  many,  and  remarkably  so  to  the 
unfortunate  Dr.  Dodd,  who  fervently  addressed  him  at  the 
last,  "  Accept,  thou  great  and  good  heart,  my  earnest  and 
fervent  thanks  for  all  thy  benevolence  and  kind  efforts  in  my 
behalf  Oh,  Dr.  Johnson  I  as  I  sought  your  know^ledge  in 
an  early  hour  of  life,  would  to  Heaven  I  had  cultivated  the 
love  and  acquaintance  of  so  excellent  a  man  I"  &c.  Cer- 
tainly, Dr.  Johnson's  efibrts  on  behalf  of  this  wretched  man 
were  astonishing — even  invoking  the  supreme  (human)  power 
to  pay  attention  to  the  voice  of  the  people — a  voice  not 
usually  invested  by  him  with  a  tittle  too  much  reverence. 

How  beautiful  is  his  record,  after  being  in  the  house  at 
the  time  of  Mr.  Thrale's  death  :  "  I  felt  almost  the  last 
flutter  of  his  pulse,  and  looked  for  the  last  time  upon  the 
face  that  for  fifteen  years  had  never  been  turned  upon  nie 
but  ivith  respect  or  benignitij .  Farewell.  May  God,  that 
delighteth  in  mercy,  have  had  mercy  on  thee  !"  How  be- 
nign, too,  is  this  extract  from  one  of  his  little  manuscript 
diaries  :  "  Afternoon  spent  cheerfully  and  elegantly,  I  hope 
without  offense  to  God  or  man  :  though  in  no  holy  duty,  yet 
in  the  general  exercise  and  cultivation  of  benevolence  I"  and 
how  mildly,  yet  firmly,  does  he  remonstrate  with  Mrs.  Piozzi 
on  her  marriage  :  "I  breathe  out,"  he  says,  in  the  commence- 
ment, "  one  sigh  more  of  tenderness,  perhaps  useless,  but  at 
least  sincere  I" 

A  man  that  is  kind  to  others  will  always  most  sensibly 
appreciate  any  kindness  done  to  himself  We  see  this  exem- 
plified in  many  cases  in  Dr.  Johnson's  career  ;  and  especially 
toward  its  close  was  he  thankful  for  any  kind  conduct  shown 
toward  him  by  his  friends.  How  hearty  his  expressions,  whcMi 
told  of  the  applications  made  to  Lord  Thurlow  for  means 
by  which  a  journey  to  Italy,  on  account  of  his  health,  might 


80  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

be  accomplished:  "This,"  said  he  "is  taking  prodigious 
pains  about  a  man  I"  "  Oh,  sir,"  said  Bos  well,  with  most 
sincere  affection,  "  your  friends  would  do  every  thing  for  you  !" 
He  paused — grew  more  and  more  agitated — till  tears  started 
into  his  eyes,  and  he  exclaimed  with  fervent  emotion,  "  God 
bless  you  all  I"  After  a  short  silence,  Boswell  being  affected 
to  tears,  he  renewed  and  extended  his  grateful  benediction : 
"  God  bless  you  all,  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake  I"  He  rose  sud- 
denly, and  quitted  the  room,  quite  melted  in  tenderness. 

Johnson  was  always  kind  and  affectionate  to  Boswell,  for 
whom  he  had  evidently  a  sincere  esteem,  whatever  he  thought 
of  the  powers  of  his  mind  :  and  even,  on  an  occasion  when 
Boswell  thought  that  Dr.  Johnson  had  rudely  interrupted 
him  in  a  conversation  at  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's,  and  ex- 
pressed his  sense  of  uneasiness,  "  Well,"  exclaimed  Johnson, 
**  I  am  sorry  for  it.  I'll  make  it  up  to  you,  twenty  different 
ways,  as  you  please."  Mrs.  Boswell  did  not  like  Johnson, 
but  nothing  can  exceed  the  playfulness  of  his  constant  allu- 
sions to  her  dislike.  On  her  husband's  return  home,  he 
writes  to  this  good  lady,  "  Pray  take  care  of  him,  and  tame 
him.  The  only  thing  in  which  I  have  the  honor  to  agree 
with  you  is,  in  loving  him."  In  a  letter  to  Boswell,  he 
says,  "  I  hope  my  irreconcileable  enemy,  Mrs.  Boswell,  is 
well.  Desire  her  not  to  transmit  her  malevolence  to  the 
young  people  :"  and  soon  after,  "  If  Mrs.  Boswell  would  be 
but  friends  with  me,  we  might  now  shut  the  temple  of 
Janus."  In  a  little  time  Mrs.  Boswell  begins  to  relent,  and 
Boswell  conveys  her  compliments  to  Dr.  Johnson,  and  com- 
municates that  she  is  about  to  send  him  some  orange  mar- 
malade of  her  own  making.  Johnson  replies  that  he  is  glad 
that  his  old  enemy  begins  to  feel  some  remorse,  and  jocularly 
says,  "  Tell  Mrs.  Boswell  that  I  shall  taste  her  marmalade 
cautiously  at  first ;  Timeo  Danaos  et  dona  ferentes.  '  Be- 
ware,' says  the  Italian  proverb,  <  of  a  reconciled  enemy.' 
But  when  I  find  it  does  me  no  harm,  I  shall  then  receive 
it,  and  be  thankful  for  it,  as  a  pledge  of  firm,  and  I  hope  of 
unalterable  kindness.  She  is,  after  all,  a  dear,  dear  lady''' 
To  Mrs.  Boswell  herself  he  writes,  "Very  little  of  the 
pleasure  which  I  received  at  the  arrival  of  your  jar  of  mar- 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  81 

malade  ^arose  from  eating  it.  I  received  it  as  a  token  of 
friendship,  as  a  proof  of  reconciliation,  things  much  siveeter 
than  sicectnieats,''  Sec.  ;  and  he  congratulates  himself,  that, 
by  having  her  kindness,  he  has  a  double  security  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  Mr.  Boswell's.  On  hearing  of  her  illness,  he 
writes  in  affectionate  terms  of  much  concern,  and  soon  after, 
says,  "  Tell  her,  I  hope  we  shall  be  at  variance  no  more  I" 
Afterward,  he  urges  BosAvell  to  bring  her  to  London  for 
change  of  air,  and  characteristically  says,  "  /  zvill  retire 
from  my  a^mi'tments  for  her  accommodatioyi.  Behave 
kindly  to  her,  and  keep  her  cheerful."  It  is  gratifying  to 
find  that  Mrs.  Boswell  reciprocated  this  kindness,  for  in  al- 
lusion to  some  epistle,  he  writes  to  BosAvell,  «'  Such  a  letter 
as  Mrs.  Boswell's  might  draw  any  man  not  wholly  motion- 
less a  great  way.  Pray  tell  the  dear  lady  how  much  her 
civility  and  kindness  have  touched  and  gratified  me."  It 
may  be  remarked  that  Johnson  always  addressed  the  female 
in  more  endearing  terms  than  the  male  sex,  never  to  the 
latter  exceeding  "  Dear  Sir,"  while  to  the  former,  <•  dear, 
dear,"  "dearest,  dearest,"  "beloved,"  &c.,  are  frequently 
met  with.  Previous  to  his  answer  to  Mrs.  Boswell's  letter, 
he  had  written  to  her  husband,  "  I  love  you  so  much,  that  I 
would  be  glad  to  love  all  that  love  you,  and  that  you  love  : 
and  I  have  love  very  really  for  Mrs.  Boswell,  if  she  thinks  it 
worthy  of  acceptance  :"  and  he  had  also  said  to  Mr.  Bos- 
well, "  Were  I  in  distress,  there  is  no  man  to  whom  I  should 
sooner  come  than  to  you.  I  should  like  to  come  and  have 
a  cottage  in  your  park,  toddle  about,  live  mostly  on  milk, 
and  he  taken  care  of  by  Mrs.  Bosivell.  She  and  I  are 
good  friends  now  ;  are  we  not  ?"  On  this  knowledge,  prob- 
ably, of  Johnson's  attachment  to  her  husband,  and  herself, 
and  their  locality  also,  she  sent  a  cordial  invitation  on  hear- 
ing of  his  illness  :  and  so  ended  the  '-fytte"  of  stalwart  knight 
and  lady  fair. 

With  him,  indeed,  all  was  open  and  sincere.  He  never 
pretended  to  feel,  but  ever  reduced  his  feelings  to  practice. 
When  Boswell  once  said,  that  he  had  often  blamed  himself 
for  not  feeling  for  others  so  sensibly  as  many  say  they  do, 
Johnson  repUed,  "  Sir,  don't  be  duped  by  them  any  more. 

D* 


82  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

You  will  find  these  very  feeling  people  are  not  very  ready  to 
do  you  good.  They  j;a?/ you  hy  feeling.''  And,  at  another 
time,  when  Boswell  made  much  the  same  observation,  he 
said,  "  Sir,  it  is  affectation  to  pretend  to  feel  the  distress  of 
others  as  much  as  they  do  themselves.*  It  is  equally  so,  as 
if  one  should  pretend  to  feel  as  much  pain  while  a  friend's 
leg  is  cutting  off,  as  he  does.  No,  sir  I  you  have  expressed 
the  rational  and  just  nature  of  sympathy.  I  would  have 
gone  to  the  extremity  of  the  earth  to  have  preserved  this 
(Mr.  Thrale's)  boy."  In  a  multitude  of  instances  this  opin- 
ion of  Dr.  Johnson's  may  be  decidedly  the  true  one,  but 
there  are  cases  in  which,  cases  of  intimate  relation  and 
friendship,  we  may  feel  for  another's  calamity  more  intensely 
than  he  feels  for  himself,  even  to  the  laying  down  our  lives 
for  our  friends — while  assuredly,  there  is,  alas  I  far  too  much 
of  the  spirit  denounced  by  St.  James  (James  ii.  16),  in  the 
world.  Dr.  Johnson  was  wholly  free  from  this ;  he  did  sub- 
stantial good.  "  He  told  me  the  other  day,"  says  Hannah 
More,  "  he  hated  to  hear  people  whine  about  metaphysical 
distresses,  when  there  was  so  much  want  and  hunger  in  the 
world."  And  she,  who  knew  and  loved  Johnson,  has  hit 
off  his  character  with  her  usual  smartness  of  observation. 
"In  Dr.  Johnson,"  she  writes,  "some  contrarieties  very  har- 
moniously meet :  if  he  has  too  little  charity  for  the  opinions 
of  others,  and  too  little  patience  with  their  faults,  he  has  the 
greatest  tenderness  for  their  i^er sonsy  Yes,  as  we  have 
seen,  no  man  forgave  more  readily  than  he  did,  when  occa- 
sionally hurried  on  to  passion,  or  to  rude  contradiction,  by 
some  slight  provocation,  or  through  impatience  at  some  re- 
sistance, or  non-acquiescence  to  his  authority.  But  in  all 
cases  of  a  serious  kind,  he  practiced  the  noblest  part  of  true 

*  In  the  Rambler  (No.  99)  he  says,  "  To  love  all  men  is  our  duty, 
so  far  as  it  includes  a  general  habit  of  benevolence,  and  readiness  of 
occasional  kindness  :  but  to  love  all  equally  is  impossible,"  &e. 

"  The  necessities  of  our  condition  require  a  thousand  offices  of  ten- 
derness, which  mere  regard  for  the  species  will  never  dictate.  Every 
man  has  frequent  grievances  which  only  the  solicitude  of  friendship 
will  discover  and  remedy,  and  which  would  remain  forever  unheeded 
in  the  mighty  heap  of  human  calamity,  were  it  only  surveyed  by  the 
eye  of  general  benevolence,  equally  attentive  to  every  misery." 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY.  83 

charity,  and  could  worthily  reason  with  himself,  in  the  words 
of  a  divine  before  quoted,  "^  "  'Tis  true  he  hath  wronged  me, 
but  unless  it  were  for  conquering  ivrongs,  what  need  have 
I  of  Christian  patience  I  Where  is  the  meekness  of  the 
Christian  spirit,  if  I  am  hurried  away  by  the  same  passion 
with  an  heathen  and  inhdel  I"  And  might  we  not  sup- 
pose that  this  passage  was  written  by  Johnson  himself?  for 
it  is  just  what  he  was  accustomed  to  do  :  "In  the  survey 
of  ray  daily  deportment,  which  I  make  each  night,  I  drag 
forth  the  crime,  (impatience,  &;c.);  into  the  awful  presence 
of  an  holy  God  I  and  there  arraigning  it  of  all  the  mis- 
chiefs it  hath  done  me,  of  all  the  troubles  it  hath  given 
me,  and  laying  before  myself  seriously  and  devoutly  all  the 
obligations  I  have  to  the  practice  of  the  contrary  virtue,  I 
condemn  it  with  an  holy  indignation,  I  cover  ^nijself  ivith 
shame  and  sorrow,  and  renew  most  solemn  resolutions 
against  it,  and  earnestly  beg  of  God  his  assistance  against 
his  a7ul  mine  eyiemy'''  This  is  the  repentant  course  of  a 
great  mind  awakened  to  a  just  sense  of  its  responsibility  ;  and 
whoever  peruses  the  holy  Meditations  and  Prayers  of  Dr. 
Johnson,  can  not  fail  to  see  that  such  was  the  manner  of 
his  powerful  rebuke  of  self,  and  of  forming  resolutions,  depend- 
ent on  divine  support,  to  conform  himself  more  and  more  to 
the  will  and  commands  of  the  Almighty  : 

"  Safe  in  His  power,  whose  eyes  discern  from  far 
The  secret  ambush  of  a  specious  prayer  : 
Implore  His  aid,  in  His  decisions  rest 
Secure,  whate'er  He  gives,  He  gives  the  best."t 

*'  We  are  brothers,"  writes  Dr.  Johnson,  $  "  as  we  are 
men  ;  we  are  again  brothers  as  we  are  Christians  :  as  men, 
we  are  brothers  by  natural  necessity  ;  but  as  Christians,  we 
are  brothers  by  voluntary  choice,  and  are  therefore  under  an 

*  Lucas  on  Holiness,  p.  104,  sixth  edition. 

t   Johnson's  Poems,  p.  35:   Kearsley,  1785. 

%  In  Sermon  XI.  of  "  Sermons  on  different  subjects,"  advertised  as 
written  by  Dr.  Taylor,  but  clearly  of  Dr.  Johnson's  composition. 
Bishop  Porteus  and  Mr.  Croker  have  no  doubt  of  this.  The  above 
sermon  has.  perhaps,  fewer  of  the  characteristics  of  Johnson's  style 
than  some  of  the  others. 


84  DR.  JOHNSON'S  HUMANITY. 

apparent  obligation  to  fulfill  the  relation  :  first,  as  it  is  es- 
tablished by  our  Creator,  and  afterward,  as  it  is  chosen  by 
ourselves.  To  have  the  same  opinions  naturally  produces 
kindness,  even  when  these  opinions  have  no  consequence  : 
because  we  rejoice  to  find  our  sentiments  approved  by  the 
judgment  of  another.  But  those  who  concur  in  Christian- 
ity, have,  by  that  agreement  in  principle,  an  opportunity  of 
more  than  speculative  kindness  :  they  may  help  forward  the 
salvation  of  each  other,  by  counsel  or  by  reproof,  by  exhort- 
ation, by  example  :  they  may  recall  each  other  from  devia- 
tions, they  may  excite  each  other  to  good  works."  Good 
would  it  be,  if  there  were  more  of  this  brotherhood  in  the 
Christian  Church. 


CHAPTER  Vm. 

HIS    CHURCH  MANSHI  P. 

Dr.  Johnson's  religion  was  that  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland, as  set  forth  in  her  liturgy,  at  once  reasonable  and 
devotional.  His  father  had  been  a  zealous  high  Churchman 
and  royalist,  and  always  retained  his  attachment  to  the  un- 
fortunate family  of  Stuart,  although  he  reconciled  himself,  as 
Boswell  tells  us,  "  by  casuistical  arguments  of  expediency  and 
necessity,  to  take  the  oaths  imposed  by  the  prevailing  power." 
We  find  that  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  he  was  elected 
a  magistrate  and  brother  of  the  corporation  of  Lichfield, 
having  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  that  "  he  believed 
there  was  no  transubstantiation  in  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper."  This  latter  he  might,  consistently  with  his 
religious  views,  apart  from  his  political,  have  done  ;  for  so 
might  Bishop  Ken,  who  strenuously  combated  the  errors  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  and  others  who  continued  to 
be  non-jurors  :  but  the  oath  of  allegiance  as  yet  was  quite  a 
different  subject  of  consideration.  His  son,  however  he  ad- 
mired the  character  of  James  the  Second,  and  detested  the 
conduct  of  William   the   Third,  ^  was  yet  a   Church   and 

*  William  the  Third  was,  nevertheless,  in  many  respects  a  great 
man.  Certainly,  he  had  little  taste  for  literature,  the  sciences,  wit, 
and  oratoiy,  and  he  was  ever  guarded  in  speech,  and  famous  fcr  secret 
reserve ;  yet  he  was  an  able  politician,  and  his  skill  and  bravery  in 
■war  almost  unequaled.  He  was  early  called  into  difficult  action,  there- 
fore his  experience  had  to  be  learned  from  his  own  failures  :  and  this 
he  must  have  felt,  for  he  once  exclaimed,  '"I  would  give  a  good  part 
of  my  estates  to  have  served  a  few  campaigns  under  the  Prince  of 
Conde,  before  I  had  to  command  against  him."  Goldsmith  hardly 
does  him  justice  :  Macaulay  speaks  of  him  as  a  veritable  hero.  Of  his 
religious  opinions,  the  latter  brilliant  historian  says,  and  we  must 
recollect  that  the  Princes  of  Orange  had  generally  been  patrons  of  the 
Calvinistic  divinity  :  "  He  had  ruminated  on  the  great  enigmas  which 
had  been  discussed  in  the  synod  of  Dort,  and  had  found  in  the  austere 


86  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

King  man  before  the  non-jurors  became  so,  who  only  on  the 
death  of  the  Pretender  at  Rome  (1788)  began  to  pray  for 
the  reigning  monarch.  Boswell  records,  singularly  enough, 
though  certainly  late  in  Johnson's  life  (1784),  that  at  an 
agreeable  party  at  Dr.  No  well's,  "  we  drank  '  Church  and 
King'  after  dinner,  with  true  Tory  cordiality :'"  ^  and  it  is 
related  before,  that  Dr.  Johnson  found  fault  with  Archbishop 
Seeker,  whose  life  he  said  deserved  to  be  recorded,  though 
he  differed  with  him  in  politics,  because  the  Archbishop  in 
lieu  of  "  Church  and  King"  gave  "  Constitution  in   Church 

and  inflexible  logic  of  the  Genevese  school  something  which  suited  his 
intellect  and  temper.  The  example  of  intolerance,  indeed,  which  some 
of  his  predecessors  had  set,  he  never  imitated.  For  all  persecution  he 
felt  a  fixed  aversion,  which  he  avowed,  not  only  where  the  avowal  was 
obviously  politic,  but  on  occasions  where  it  seemed  that  his  interest 
would  have  been  yiromoted  by  dissimulation  or  silence.  His  theolog- 
ical opinions,  however,  were  even  more  decided  than  those  of  his  ances- 
tors. The  tenet  of  predestination  was  the  key-stone  of  his  religion." 
At  this  time  the  Protestants  of  the  United  Provinces  were  divided  into 
two  great  religious  parties,  which  '"  almost  exactly  coincided  with  two 
great  political  parties."  The  x\rminian  party  were  regarded  in  the 
licfht  of  Papists  by  the  multitude.  It  is  easy  to  see  to  which  division, 
both  religiously  and  politically.  Dr.  Johnson  would  have  belonged.  He 
liked  not  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  and  would  not  argue  upon  it 
— perhaps  from  a  dislike  to  enter  conversationally  upon  a  subject  so 
replete  with  mystery,  so  above  the  reason  of  man,  and  demanding  so 
much  of  our  reverential  awe.  It  "  was  a  part  of  the  clamor  of  the 
times,"  he  said,  "so  it  is  mentioned  in  our  Articles,  but  with  as  little 
positiveness  as  could  be."  The  fullness  and  wisdom  of  the  17th  Ar- 
ticle will  strike  most  persons,  and  it  seems  to  satisfy  the  demands  of 
the  sensible  and  judicious  of  each  party. 

*  George  Hardinge,  the  Welsh  Judge,  nephew  of  Lord-Chancellor 
Camden,  calls  Johnson  "the  most  avowed  and  flaming  tory  of  his 
age,"  and  yet  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  the  Latin  inscription  which  is  at  the 
foot  of  the  picture  of  the  Whig  Lord  Camden  in  Guildhall. 

Lord  Camden  was  always  on  the  popular  side,  both  at  college  and 
in  after  life.  What  was  said  of  this  great  lawyer,  might  with  the  utmost 
fitness  be  said  of  our  great  man  of  literature,  "No  man  ever  breathed 
who  had  such  an  abhorrence  of  obscenity,  or  of  an  improper  liberty 
with  sacred  names."  His  lordship  was  in  the  constant  habit  of  asso- 
ciating with  artists  and  men  of  letters,  and  throughout  life  he  was  an 
eager  devourer  of  romances,  in  which  taste  he  was  joined  by  Pitt,  Fox, 
Lord  Mansfield,  Bishop  Warburton,  Bishop  Jebb,  and  other  most 
eminent  personages.  See  Lives  of  the  Chancellors^  by  Lord  Camp- 
bell, vol.  v.  p.  238,  &c. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  87 

and  Statq  :"  and  on  being  asked  what  difference  there  was 
between  the  two  toasts,  said,  "Why,  sir,  you  may  be  sure 
he  meant  sometliing.''  In  those  and  previous  days  the  well 
established  toast  of  "  Church  and  King,"  may  have  embodied 
the  further  significancy  of  "  Church  and  no  Pope,'"  and 
hence  meant  more  than  the  mere  expression  of  loyalty  as  in 
the  present  time.  But  Johnson,  who  despised  King  William, 
and  thought  meanly  of  the  first  and  second  Georges,  held 
George  the  Third  in  high  regard,  as  "  the  only  king  who  for 
almost  a  century  has  much  appeared  to  desire,  or  much 
endeavored  to  deserve,"  the  affections  of  the  people  :  a  king 
who  knows  not  the  name  of  party,  and  who  wishes  to  be  the 
common  father  of  all  his  people."  * 

Dr.  Johnson  was  certainly  a  Jacobite,  and  he  took  delight 
in  talking  of  Jacobitism,  but  his  zeal  wonderfully  abated 
with  the  advancement  of  years,  and  and  the  absence  of  a 
really  arousing  cause.  And  Tories  and  non-jurors,  once  op- 
posed to  the  ruling  sovereigns  and  their  courts,  have  more 
and  more  continued  to  acquiesce  in  the  settled  change,  and 
become  more  prominent  than  the  Whigs  in  their  attachment 
to  royalty,  as  represented  by  the  Hanoverian  line,  and  to  the 
established  religion  ;  and  somewhat  of  a  revolution  must  take 
place  ere  Dr.  Pusey  become  a  Sacheverell  ardently  backed 
by  the  populace  ;  or  an  Atterbury  reveal  himself  on  the 
episcopal  bench  ;  or  seven  bishops  be  committed  to  the 
Tower  for  contempt  of  the  regal  succession.  No,  the 
descendants  of  the  strong  opposition  party  have  now  become, 
by  easy  degrees,  the  eminently  conservative  power  in  Church 
and  State. 

And  this  gradual  working  went  on  largely  durinsf  the 
reign  of  George  the  Third,  silently  stealing  on  the  mind  of 
Dr.  Johnson  in  common  with  that  of  others  :  for,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  there  must  always  be  a  conservative 
strength  accumulating,  and  if  the  Church  of  England  were 
changed  to-morrow  from  Episcopacy  to  Presbytery,  we  should 
find  this  same  Presbytery,  in  the  course  of  .years,  as  in  the 
case  of  Scotland,  assuming  the  conservative  principle,  and  con- 
tending against  the  innovations  and  agitations  of  new  parties 
*  The  False  Alarm,  1770. 


88  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

arising  in  opposition  to  its  sway.  Little  did  our  reformers 
imagine  that  with  like  feeling  as  they  regarded  the  Church 
of  Rome,  bodies  of  men  would  rise  up  and  cordially  contemn 
the  result  of  the  operations  of  their  tongues,  hands,  and  lives, 
even  the  Reformed  Church  ! 

It  may  be  supposed  that  the  year  1745  would  have  made 
the  blood  flow  fast,  and  the  pulse  beat  hopefully  in  the 
Jacobite  faction  :  that  Balmerino's  cry  on  the  scaffold,  of 
"  God  bless  King  James,"  would  have  stirred  into  action  the 
minds  and  bodies  of  all  who  in  any  degree  adhered  to  the 
cause.  And  yet  Boswell  says  of  Dr.  Johnson,  "  T  have 
heard  him  declare,  that  if  holding  up  his  right  hand  would 
have  secured  victory  at  Culloden  to  Prince  Charles's  army, 
he  ivas  not  sure  he  would  have  held  it  up :  so  little  confi- 
dence had  he  in  the  right  claimed  by  the  House  of  Stuart, 
and  so  fearful  was  he  of  the  consequences  of  another  revolu- 
tion on  the  throne  of  Great  Britain."  And  at  another  time 
he  said  to  Mr.  Langton,  "  Nothing  has  ever  offered  that 
has  made  it  worth  my  while  to  consider  the  question  fully .^^ 
He  also  said  to  the  same,  talking  of  King  James  the  Second, 
whom  he  afterward  unaccountably  calls  "  a  very  good  king," 
that  "  it  was  become  impossible  for  him  to  reign  any  longer 
in  this  country."  And,  so  much  does  the  antagonistic  spirit 
of  the  human  mind  contribute  to  the  vehemence  of  maintain- 
ing opinions,  he  was  heard  to  say,  '■'  that  after  the  death  of 
a  violent  Whig,  with  whom  he  used  to  contend  with  great 
eagerness,  he  felt  his  Toryism  much  abated."  So  true  is  it, 
that  we  are  half  won  over,  when  we  cease  to  care  for  victory 
in  argument :  and  that  Dr.  Johnson  knew  this  to  be  a  cer- 
tain principle  in  human  nature.  We  find  that  once  when 
his  friend  the  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor  commended  a  physician,  and 
told  Johnson  how  he  had  to  contend  in  his  behalf  with  per- 
sons of  the  neighborhood,  "  You  should  consider,  sir,"  he  re- 
plied, "  that  by  every  one  of  your  victories  he  is  a  loser  :  for 
every  man  of  ivhom  you  get  the  better  will  be  angry  and 
resolve  not  to  employ  him  :  whereas  if  people  get  the  better 
of  you  in  argument  about  him,  they'll  think,  '  We'll  send  for 
him,  nevertheless.'  "  How  well  would  it  be  if  controversial 
theologians,  among  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  equally,  wouKl 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  89 

consider  -the  bearing  of  this  anecdote  on  their  many  profit- 
less discussions,  and  we  should  not  see  the  implacably  hostile 
array  of  the  combatants  that  we  are  now  compelled  to  wit- 
ness, each  the  more  angered,  and  not  convinced  to  confession, 
on  defeat. 

In  earlier  years,  Dr.  Johnson  had  been  a  more  thorough 
Jacobite. *"     Once  he  said  to  a  young  lady,   *'  My  dear,  I 

*  Dr.  Johnson's  political  principles  were  attacked  by  one  Joseph 
Towers;  especially,  his  "Taxation  no  Tyranny"  was  handed  with 
severity.  Dr.  Towers  was  a  Unitarian  preacher,  a  zealous  adherent 
of  the  Revolution  of  1688,  a  member  of  the  Revolution  Society  in 
London,  one  who  approved  of  the  execution  of  Charles  the  First, 
applauded  the  actors  in  the  French  Revolution,  held  the  democratic 
sentiments  of  Milton,  argued  in  favor  of  Locke's  liberal  philosophy 
against  the  accusations  of  Dean  Tucker,  opposed  the  views  of  Edmund 
Burke  in  regard  to  the  revolution  in  France,  and  liked  neither  ecclesi- 
astical establishments  nor  standing  armies.  Such  a  one,  we  may  be 
sure,  could  not  approve  of  the  principles  held  by  Dr.  Johnson.  He 
wrote  several  tracts  and  pamphlets ;  and  among  these,  a  "  Letter  to 
Dr.  Johnson,  occasioned  by  his  late  Political  Publications,"'  and  also 
"An  essay  on  the  Life,  Character,  and  Writings  of  Dr.  Johnson."'  At 
the  commencement  of  this  essay,  he  trusts  too  much  to  sayings  related 
by  Mrs.  Piozzi,  who  was  by  no  means  worthy  of  implicit  credit ;  but 
on  the  whole,  as  is  usual  with  Dr.  Towers,  there  is  much  fairness  in 
his  view,  as  a  political  adversary,  of  Dr.  Johnson's  character ;  and  he 
always  pays  the  profoundest  obeisance  to  the  powers  of  his  mind,  and 
the  goodness  and  piety  of  his  heart.  He  curiously  ends  his  Essay  by 
saying,  "  The  faults  and  foibles  of  Dr.  Johnson,  whatever  they  were, 
are  now  descended  with  him  to  the  grave ;  but  his  virtues  should  be 
the  object  of  our  imitation."  And  yet  some  of  those  "  faults  and 
foibles"  he  has  endeavored  to  rescue  from  the  oblivion  of  the  grave  ! 

No  one  can  rise  from  the  perusal  of  this  Essay,  without  still  cherish- 
ing a  very  exalted  opinion  of  Dr.  Johnson,  as  a  man  of  extraordinary 
intellectual  power,  and  religious  conduct.  Boswell  is  pleased  with  the 
observation  of  Dr.  Towers,  and  gives  an  extract  from  the  Essay.  He 
also  says,  that  although  he  abhors  his  Whiggish,  democratical  propen- 
sities, yet  that  he  esteems  him  as  "an  ingenious,  knowing,  and  very 
convivial  man." 

The  Sermons  of  Dr.  Towers  were  rather  moral  essays,  cold  and  sens- 
ible after  the  manner  of  Unitarian  writers.  It  may  be  remarked,  that 
in  a  letter  wTitten  by  the  Duke  de  Rochefoucault  to  Dr.  Price,  on  the 
occasion  of  an  address  from  the  Revolution  Society  in  London,  to  the 
National  Assembly  in  Paris,  congratulating  them  on  the  French  Revo- 
lution, this  nobleman  writes,  "  The  dawn  of  a  glorious  day,  in  which 
two  nations  icho  had  always  esteemed  each  othcr^  notwithstanding  their 
political  divisions  and  the  diversity  of  their  governments,  should  con- 


90  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHxMANSHIP. 

hope  you  are  a  Jacobite  ?"  And  on  her  uncle  (tlie  elder  Mr. 
Langton,  himself  a  Tory)  remonstrating  with  him  for  put- 
ting such  a  question,  "  Why,  sir,"  he  replied,  "  I  meant  no 
offense  to  your  niece,  /  meant  Iter  a  great  comjjliment .  A 
Jacobite,  sir,  believes  in  the  divine  right  of  kings.  He  that 
believes  in  the  divine  right  of  kings  believes  in  a  Divinity. 
A  Jacobite  believes  in  the  divine  right  of  bishops.  He  that 
believes  in  the  divine  right  of  bishops,  believes  in  the  divine 
authority  of  the  Christian  religion.  Therefore,  sir,  a  Jacobite 
is  neither  an  atheist  nor  a  deist.  That  can  not  be  said  of  a 
Whig ;  for  Wliigglsm  is  a  negation  of  all  'principle " 
And  yet,  according  to  this  harsh  definition,  Johnson  was 
somewhat  of  a  Whig  himself  in  this  matter.  Neither  was 
he  a  steadfast  non-juror  advocate,  although  he  must  have 
approved  of  the  abstract  principle.  Once  he  expressed  an 
opinion  that  a  non-juror  would  be  more  criminal  in  refusing 
the  oaths  than  in  taking  them,  because  the  refusal  might 
injure  him  in  his  livehhood,  and  tempt  him  to  crime.  Such 
a  mode  of  reasoning  would  have  come  better  from  Paley 
than  Dr.  Johnson,  but  in  this  case  of  submission  to  the 
reigning  monarch,  whatever  might  have  been  the  original 
seating  of  his  family  on  the  throne,  the  doctor  seems  to  have 
agreed  with  what  Paley  has  written,  who,  although  giving 
a  strong  preference  to  an  hereditary  rather  than  an  elective 
monarchy,  yet  says,  "  If  the  house  of  Lancaster,  or  even  the 
posterity  of  Cromwell,  had  been  at  this  day  seated  upon  the 
throne  of  England,  we  should  have  been  as  little  concerned 
to  inquire  how  the  founder  of  the  family  came  there."  We 
may  think  that  Dr.  Johnson,  and  very  many  other  Tories 
who  held  opinions  identical  Avith  his,  wisely  beheld  their 
"civil  obligation  resolved  into  expediency:"  and  not  seeing 
sufficient  cause  for  opposition  or  rebellion,  cheerfully  consented 
to  the  laws  emanating  from  the  present  line  of  succession, 
and  to  the  regal  succession  itself      This  could  hardly  be  done 

tract  an  intimate  union^  founded  on  the  similarity  of  their  opinions, 
and  their  common  enthusiasm  for  liberty."  And  yet,  after  all  this, 
England  resounded  with  the  fife  and  drum,  arousing  her  inhabitants  of 
every  town  and  village,  and  enlisting  them  in  arms  against  France  ; 
and  we  beheld  the  long  and  arduous  continental  war  crowned  by  the 
victory  of  Waterloo ! 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  91 

by  one  who  disliked  and  abhorred  "the  tabefaction  of  all 
principles  ;"  and  we  can  only  ascribe  this  indifference  of  Dr. 
Johnson,  coupled  with  his  subsequent  receipt  of  a  pension, 
to  a  steadily  increasing  change  of  opinion  :  to  be  less  won- 
dered at,  when  we  know  he  himself  had  never  been  in  a  non- 
juring  meeting-house,  and  did  not  think  highly  of  the  non- 
jurors themselves,  although  th(?re  were,  doubtlessly,  men  of 
the  highest  character  and  ability  in  their  ranks. 

Only  thus  briefly  glancing  at  the  political  hue  of  Dr. 
Johnson's  churchmanship,  let  us  look  more  steadily  at  its 
devotional  and  practical  interiority.  He  always  seemed  to 
love  the  church  from  his  heart.  On  one  occasion,  when  it 
was  told  him  that  himself  and  a  friend  usually  met  at  church, 
"  Sir,"  said  he,  "it  is  the  best  place  we  can  meet  in,  except 
heaven,  and  I  hope  we  shall  meet  there  too."  He  could  not 
conscientiously  enter  a  Presbyterian  place  of  worship,  and 
when  refusing  to  go  and  hear  Principal  Robertson  preach, 
he  said,  "  I  will  hear  him,  if  he  will  get  up  into  a  tree  and 
preach  :  but  I  will  not  give  a  sanction,  by  my  presence, 
to  a  Presbyterian  assembly."  We  must  bear  in  mind  that 
Dr.  Johnson's  sanction,  was  a  thing  that  could  not  be  hid, 
and  often  would  be  construed  into  a  fact  of  public  approval ; 
indeed  a  mere  indulgent  act  of  curiosity,  compliance,  or  care- 
lessness, might  be  invested  with  an  importance  exceedingly 
annoying  to  him,  and  directly  adverse  to  his  religious 
scruples. 

When  he  was  in  his  forty-seventh  year  he  was  offered  a 
living  by  the  elder  Mr.  Langton,  if  he  were  inclined  to  enter 
into  Holy  Orders. =^'  But  this  offer  he  conscientiously  de- 
clined. It  was  situated  in  a  pleasant  part  of  the  country, 
and  of  tolerable  annual  income.  Moreover,  it  appears  that  at 
this  time  Johnson  was  in  straitened  circumstances,!  and  his 

*  It  may  be  said  of  Johnson,  as  it  was  said  of  Addison  by  Lord 
Halifax,  when  his  lordship  kept  him  out  of  the  church — "I  believe  it 
is  the  only  injury  he  will  ever  do  it." — Bowycr's  Memoirs,  p.  Qo. 

t  In  this  year  Dr.  Johnson  was  miserably  poor.  He  would  have 
been  arrested  for  debt  in  February,  had  not  'Six.  Richardson  bailed  him. 
In  the  month  of  March  he  was  under  arrest  for  five  pounds  eighteen 
shillings,  and  was  compelled  to  borrow  six  guineas  of  3Ir.  Richardson. 
Yet  it  was  a  year  (1756)  of  great  kindness  from  him  toward  others. 


92  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

London  friends  had  become  scattered ;  but  his  reason  of  re- 
fusal was  cogent :  "I  have  not,"  he  said,  "  the  requisites  for 
the  office,  and  I  can  not  in  conscience  shear  the  flock  ivhich 
I  am  finable  to  feed.''  This  is  related  by  Sir  John  Haw- 
kins, and  Boswell  says,  that  Johnson  felt  that  his  temper  and 
habits  rendered  him  unfit  for  continual  instruction  of  the  vul- 
gar and  ignorant,  which  he  held  "to  be  an  essential  duty  in 
a  clergyman  ;"  and  moreover,  that  Johnson's  love  of  a  Lon- 
don life  rendered  the  thought  of  a  residence  in  the  country 
wearisome  and  lonely.  This  latter  and  lower  motive  may 
have  influenced  him  in  some  degree  ;  for  we  find  when  he 
was  afterward  staying  at  Langton  (the  name  of  the  rectory 
ofiered  him),  though  he  had  the  privilege  of  a  good  library, 
and  saw  several  of  the  gentry  of  the  neighborhood,  yet  that 
he  was  fully  convinced  that  he  could  not  have  been  satisfied 
with  a  country  living  :  for,  talking  of  a  respectable  clergy- 
man in  Lincolnshire,  the  very  one,  probably,  who  accepted 
this  living  after  his  refusal,  he  remarked,  "  This  man,  sir, 
fills  up  the  duties  of  his  life  well.  I  approve  of  him,  but 
could  not  imitate  him."  Yet  the  prevailing  motive  was  evi- 
dently that  stated  by  him  to  Sir  John  Hawkins,  for  we  have 
this  noble  part  of  his  conversation  recorded  :  "  Sir,"  he  said 
to  a  friend,  a  lawyer,  who  thought  a  clerical  life  would  have 
been  easier,  "  Sir,  the  life  of  a  parson,  of  a  conscientious  cler- 
gyman, is  not  easy.  I  have  always  considered  a  clergyman 
as  the  father  of  a  larger  family  than  he  is  able  to  maintain. 
/  ivould  rather  have  chajicery  suits  upon  my  hands  tlian 
the  cure  of  souls.     No,  sir,  I  do  not  envy  a  clergyman's  life 

The  above  facts  bring  to  mind  a  letter,  lately  sold  in  London  to  Mr- 
Pocock,  which  gives  evidence  of  Johnson's  poverty  in  the  year  1751. 

"  Mr.  Johnston — Sr,  your  wife  stands  endebted  to  me  for  the  soume 
of  two  pounds  ever  sinces  Agust  12th  1749 — wh  sume  I  have  caled 
for,  and  sent  after  teel  lame  ashamed,  &  as  it  is  such  a  small  afair  it 
cane  distres  no  man  to  pay  it  in  a  weeks  time,  wh  I  hope  you  wil  com- 
ply with  or  eles  you  must  excuis  me  proceeding  according  to  Law  in 
preventing  of  which  you  will  oblig  yrself  and  humble  Servt. 

"Will  Mitchell. 

"Juley  3th,  1751. 
"  Star,  Shandois  Street, 

"  Govt  Garden." 

[From  the  Athenceum  of  July  22,  1848.] 


DR.  JOHxNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP  93 

as  an  easy  life,  nor  do  I  envy  the  clergyman  who  makes  it 
an  easy  life."  How  would  this  have  pleased  good  Bishop 
Burnet,  who,  in  his  admirable  "  Pastoral  Care,"  thus  speaks 
of  the  studious  part  of  a  clergyman's  life,  in  terms  so  apropos 
with  the  above,  that  they  may  readily  be  quoted  ;  "Let  any 
young  divine,"  he  says,  "  go  to  the  chambers  of  a  student  in 
tlie  Inns  of  Court,  and  see  how  many  books  he  must  read, 
and  how  great  a  volume  of  a  commonplace  book  he  must 
make  ;  he  will  there  see  through  how  hard  a  task  one  must 
go  in  a  course  of  many  years,  and  how  ready  he  must  be  in 
all  the  parts  of  it,  before  he  is  called  to  the  bar,  or  can  man- 
age business.  How  exact  must  a  physician  be  in  anatomy, 
in  simples,  in  pharmacy,  in  the  theory  of  diseases,  and  in  the 
observations  and  counsels  of  doctors,  before  he  can,  either  with 
honor  or  a  safe  conscience,  undertake  practice  ;"  and  the  in- 
ference is  plain  in  regard  to  the  "  noblest  and  most  important 
profession  of  all  others,"  for,  as  another  bishop  has  said, 
*'It  is  no  slender  measure  of  the  knowledge  of  antiquity,  his- 
tory, philology,  that  is  requisite  to  qualify  a  man  for  such  an 
undertaking."  All  this  would  have  been  more  than  master- 
ed by  Dr.  Johnson,  but  he  felt  that  he  had  not  the  necessary 
love  and  zeal,  and  peculiar  aptness  for  a  ministry  of  which 
Bishop  Burnet  exclaims,  "  If  St.  Paul,  after  all  his  visions 
and  labors,  after  all  his  raptures  and  sufferings,  yet  was  in- 
wardly burnt  up  with  the  concerns  of  the  church,  and  labor- 
ed with  much  fear  and  trembling,  how  much  greater  appre- 
hensions ought  other  persons  to  have  of  such  a  trust  I" 

And  yet  who  could  better  draw  the  model  of  a  pastor,  or 
more  properly  describe  what  the  preaching  of  the  clergy 
should  be,  than  this  Dr.  Johnson,  who  honorably  refused  to 
enter  on  the  ministerial  office,  because  of  his  own  presumed 
unfitness  to  fulfill  the  duty  in  the  love  of  it.  His  model  of  a 
clergyman  was  the  Rev.  Zachariah  Mudge,  Prebendary  of 
Exeter,  who,  we  are  told,  was  idolized  in  the  west  of  England, 
both  for  his  excellence  as  a  preacher  and  the  uniform  perfect 
propriety  of  his  private  character.  After  telling  of  the  great 
and  comprehensive  nature  of  his  thought  and  action,  his  firm- 
ness, and  general  benevolence,  and  profound  learning,  Johnson 
proceeds  to  say,  "  His  discharge  of  parochial  duties  was  ex- 


91  DR.  JOHiNSUMS  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

emplary.  How  his  sermons  were  composed,  may  be  learned 
from  the  excellent  volume  which  he  has  given  to  the  public  ; 
but  how  they  were  delivered  can  be  only  known  to  those  who 
heard  them  :  for,  as  he  appeared  in  the  pulpit,  words  will 
not  easily  describe  him.  His  delivery,  though  unconstrained, 
was  not  negligent,  and  though  forcible,  was  not  turbulent  : 
disdaining  anxious  nicety  of  emphasis,  and  labored  artifice  of 
action,  it  captivated  the  hearer  by  its  natural  dignity  :  it 
roused  the  sluggish  and  fixed  the  volatile,  and  detained  the 
mind  upon  the  subject  without  directing  it  to  the  speaker." 

The  reader  of  the  above  truly  Johnsonian  paragraph  will 
not  fail  to  mark  its  judicious  antithesis,  and  concisely  learn 
what  should  be  avoided,  and  what  should  be  adopted  in 
preaching-  The  main  desideratum  is  naturalness  of  manner 
and  of  voice — no  "labored  artifice  of  action,"  but  "natural 
dignity" — with  the  fixing  the  minds  of  the  hearers  on  the 
subject,  "  without  directing  to  the  speaker."  Alas  I  for  our 
spiritual  pride  and  idolatry  of  intellect,  how  do  all  good  and 
humble  men  crucify  that  carnal  disposition  !  Well  saith 
Solomon,  "  For  men  to  search  their  own  glory  is  not  glory  ;"^ 
and  let  us  all,  laity  and  clergy  alike,  remember  St.  Paul's 
frequent  exhortations  to  lowliness  of  mind  :  "  Let  each  esteem 
other  better  than  themselves."  One  of  the  ancient  fathers 
would  frequently  weep  at  the  applause  that  was  so  often  ac- 
corded to  his  sermons  :  "  Would  to  God,"  he  said,  "  they  had 
rather  gone  away  silent  and  thoughtful  I"  "  I  love  a  serious 
preacher,"  writes  Fenelon,  "  who  speaks  for  my  sake,  and 
not  for  his  own ;  who  seeks  my  salvation,  and  not  his  own 
vain-glory."  "  The  fame  of  a  godly  man,"  says  the  sainted 
Baxter,  "is  as  great  a  snare  as  the  fame  of  a  learned  man. 
And  woe  to  him  that  takes  up  with  the  fame  of  godliness, 
instead  of  godliness  !"  Godly  simplicity  is  the  alchemy,  as 
has  been  said,  that  converts  every  thing  it  touches  into  gold. 
"  If  any  man  ascend  the  pulpit,"  said  Kirke  White,  "with 
the  intention  of  uttering  a  fine  thing,  he  is  committing  a 
deadly  sin."  "  Ah,  why  are  dust  and  ashes  proud  ?"*  ex- 
claims the  Rev.  John  Newton,  in  reference  to  this  matter. 

*  Prov.  XXV.  27. 

t  Why  is  earth  and  ashes  proud? — Ecclus.  x.  9. 


DR.  .JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHir.  95 

But  those  who  wish  to  pursue  the  subject  further,  and  learii 
true  humility  of  heart  in.  relation  to  it,  should  diligently 
peruse  Bishop  Burnet's  "  Pastoral  Care,"  and  Cowper's  sec- 
ond book  of  his  "  Task  ;"  and,  after  all  that  can  be  said  and 
written,  we  may  be  pretty  sure  that  earnestness  is  the  grand 
secret  of  pulpit  and  pastoral  success  ;  as  our  poet  saith  of  the 
young  warrior, 

"  Wolfe,  where'er  he  fought, 
Put  so  much  of  his  heart  into  his  act, 
That  his  example  had  a  magnet's  force." 

Dr.  Johnson  does  not  inform  us  whether  this  clergyman's 
preaching  was  of  an  extemporaneous  nature,  but  we  may, 
from  the  evident  exactnesss  and  sober  seriousness  of  the  print- 
ed discourses,  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  previous- 
ly written  in  the  study.  A  good  sermon  is  a  good  sermon, 
whether  written  or  spoken  ;  and  the  question  whether  sermons 
should  be  written  and  read,  or  be  unwritten  and  spoken  with- 
out book,  should  be  left  to  the  ability  and  prudence  of  ministers, 
and  ever  be   regarded   as  a  matter  of  the  least  importance. 

The  pen  and  the  tongue  maybe  equally  inspired.  Wrongly 
did  the  Quaker  say  to  Baxter,  "  You  read  your  sermons  out 
of  a  paper,  therefore  you  have  not  the  Sjnrit /"  And  he 
replied,  "  It  is  not  want  of  your  abilities  that  makes  ministers 
use  notes,  but  it  is  a  regard  to  the  work,  and  good  of  the 
hearers.  I  zcse  notes  as  much  as  any  man,  ichen  I  take 
jMins  ;  and  as  little  as  any  inan,  luheu  I  ain  lazy,  or  busy, 
or  have  not  time  to  prepare.  It  is  easier  for  us  to  irreach 
three  sermons  without  notes,  than  one  ivith  them.''  We 
can  readily  understand  this  in  one  who  has  the  gift  of  fluent 
speech.  To  such  a  man,  to  write  a  short  sermon  would  be 
a  great  labor.  It  is  as  one  said,  who  wrote  a  long,  rambling 
letter  to  a  friend,  "If  I  had  more  time,  I  would  have  written 
a  shorter  one."  He  wrote  as  he  would  have  spoken;  while 
a  shorter  epistle  would  have  conveyed  fully  as  much  intelli- 
gence, but  with  better  arrangement  and  more  perspicuity. 
Few  extemporaneous  preachers  would  like  to  read  their  ser- 
mons in  print,  taken  down  word  for  word  as  they  were  uttered  ; 
no,  much  correction  would  be  necessary  ;  and  does  not  tins 
tell  us  of  the  superior  inspiration  attendant  on  the  pen,  rather 


96  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

than  on  the  tongue?  There  is  much  mistake  on  this  subject, 
especially  among  the  humbler  and  more  ignorant  classes  of 
mankind,  who  look  upon  an  extemporaneous  preacher  as 
almost  necessarily  inspired  I*  What  would  such  persons 
think  of  four,  five,  or  six  hours,  of  eloquent  and  glowing  de- 
bate from  individual  members  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament  ? 
Too  often  the  power  of  public  preaching  is  put  down  to  in- 
spiration, when  it  is  an  intellectual  gift  simply,  and  mainly 
dependent  on  the  force  of  the  natural  memory  ;  and  while 
we  reason  correctly  as  regards  the  speeches  of  political 
speakers,  we  believe  fanatically  concerning  the  discourses  of 
divines.  Often  an  ill  sermon,  with  a  multitude  of  texts  flu- 
ently quoted,  but  wrongly  applied  will  take  more  (it  merits 
no  better  expression)  than  a  correct  and  more  scriptural  dis- 
course. Bishop  Stillingfleet  complained  in  his  time,  "There 
is  got  an  ill  habit  of  speaking  extempore,  and  a  loose  and 
careless  way  of  talking  in  the  pulpit,  ivliich  is  easy  to  the 
preacher,  and  lilausihle  to  less  judicious  peoj'^le" 

Divines  differ  much  on  this  subject,  but,  as  has  been  said 
before,  it  is  quite  an  unimportant  one.  Bishop  Burnet  gives 
excellent  rules  for  proficiency  in  both  styles  of  preaching,  and 

*  We  may  read  on  all  sides  of  great  success  attendant  on  the  delivery 
of  written  sermons.  Of  the  celebrated  Romaine  it  is  recorded  :  "  Al- 
though he  still  adhered  to  the  written  sermon,  he  delivered  it  with 
energy  and  pathos  ;  and  great  and  small  boi-e  testimony  to  the  power 
with  which  he  spake.  The  Gospel  from  his  mouth  appeared  to  them 
another  Gospel  from  that  which  they  had  heard  before.  His  fame 
spread;  multitudes  thronged  around  him;  the  chui'ch  was  crowded," 
&c.  &c. — Memoirs  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon^  vol.  i.  p.  131. 

The  excellent  observations  of  Charles  Simeon,  in  regard  to  extempo- 
raneous prayer,  may  aptly  be  applied  to  extemporaneous  preaching  : 
"  Now  take  the  prayers,"  he  says,  "  that  are  offered  on  any  Sabbath  in 
all  places  out  of  the  Establishment ;  have  them  all  written  dowti,  and 
every  expression  sifted  and  scrutinized  as  our  Liturgy  has  been  ;  then 
compare  them  with  the  prayers  that  have  been  offered  in  all  the 
churches  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  see  ivhat  comparison  the  extemporaneous 
effusions  will  bear  with  our  precomposed  forms.  Having  done  this  for 
one  Sabbath,  proceed  to  do  it  for  a  year ;  and  then,  after  a  similar  ex- 
amination, compare  them  again.  Were  this  done,  (and  done  it  ought 
to  be  in  order  to  form  a  correct  judgment  on  the  case),  methinks  there 
is  scarcely  a  man  in  the  Icingdom  that  tvould  not  fall  down  on  his  knees 
and  bless  God  for  the  Liturgy  of  the  Established  Church.''' — Simeon^s 
Memoirs,  3d  edit.  p.  215. 


DR.  JOHNSOiN'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  97 

Bishop  Maiit  makes  an  observation,  which,  if  attended  to, 
would  at  once  reconcile  all  men  to  the  extemporaneous  man- 
ner. He  says,  "Not  a  sentiment  should  be  conveyed  from 
the  pulpit  to  the  mind  of  the  hearer,  not  an  expression  should 
escape  the  preacher's  lip  or  fall  upon  the  hearer's  ear,  which 
could  not  be  justified  and  maintained  in  the  seclusion  of  the 
closet,  and  in  the  soberness  of  private  conversation."  And 
he  gives  a  memorable  instance  in  the  case  of  Bishop  Hall,  so 
famed  for  evangelical  sweetness :  "Never  durst  I  climb,"  said 
the  bishop,  "  into  the  pulpit  to  preach  any  sermon,  whereof  I 
had  not  before,  in  my  poor  and  plain  fashion,  penned  every 
word  in  the  same  order  wherein  I  hoped  to  deli^'-er  it."* 

It  was  saidf  of  Bishop  Andrew's  sermons,  "  Few  of  them 
but  they  passed  his  hand,  and  were  thrice  revised  before  they 
were  preached  :  and  he  ever  misliked  often  and  loose  preach- 
ing, without  study  of  antiquity  ;  and  he  would  be  bold  with 
himself,  and  say,  "  Whe?i  he  preached  tivice  a  clay  at  St. 
Giles's,  he  prrt^e<:Z  once.''  Alas  I  some  light  and  ignorant 
minds  would  best  like  the  prating. 

The  celebrated  Charles  Simeon,  too,  used  to  read  his  ser- 
mons over  and  over  again,  until  he  could  deliver  them  with 
great   accuracy   and  ease  ;   and   on  one  occasion   the  writer 

*  The  same  degree  of  reverence  should  be  made  use  of  in  the  desk. 
Dr.  Stonehouse  (afterward  one  of  the  most  correct  and  elegant  preachers 
in  the  kingdom)  once  prevailed  upon  Garrick  to  go  to  church  with  him. 
After  the  service,  the  British  Roscius  asked  the  doctor  what  particukir 
business  he  had  to  do  when  the  duty  was  over?  '•None,'"  said  the 
other.  "I  thouijht  you  had,"  said  Garrick,  ''on  seeing  you  enter  the 
reading  desk  in  such  a  hurr}'.  "Nothing,"  added  he.  "can  be  more 
indecent  than  to  see  a  clergyman  set  about  sacred  business  as  if  he  were 
a  tradesman,  and  wo  into  tiie  church  as  if  he  wanted  to  get  out  of  it  us 
soon  as  possible."  He  next  asked  the  doctor,  '"  What  books  he  had  in 
the  desk  before  him?"  '•  Only  the  Bible  and  Prayer-book."  '"Only 
the  Bible  and  Prayer-book  !"  replied  tbe  actor  ;  "  why.  you  tossed  them 
backward  and  forward,  and  turned  the  leaves  as  carelessly  as  if  they 
were  those  of  a  day-book  or  ledger." — Countess  of  Huntingdon,  vol.  i. 
p.  139.  The  great  secret  of  reading  well  is  to  avoid  a  mock  reveren- 
tial tone,  and  to  read  in  the  natural  voice  :  especially  reading  the  nar- 
rative parts  of  the  Bible  as  you  would  read  a  narrative  in  any  other 
book,  desirous  of  making  it  understood. 

t  By  the  Bishop  of  Ely,  in  the  Funeral  Sermon  of  this  "  nainful 
preacher,"  p.  21.      Sec  Southev's  Commonplaee  Book,  p   343. 

■     E 


0?,  DR.  JOII-NSO.N'S  CHUUCHMAiNSlIiP. 

recollects  liis  complaint  of  having  been  so  much  engaged  as 
only  to  have  had  time  to  read  liis  sermon  over  five  times 
previous  to  delivery.  Written  sermons  are  of  great  antiquity, 
for  even  some  of  the  fathers  preached  from  book,  and  the 
written  sermon  is  most  suited  and  acceptable  to  the  staid 
character  of  the  English  people,  as  well  as  to  the  more  en- 
lightened minds  among  them  ;  yet  it  would  be  well  if  the 
extemporaneous  manner  were  also  studied,  for,  if  occasionally 
used  with  effect,  it  would  go  far  to  disabuse  the  people  of 
the  absurd  idea,  that  the  preacher  of  the  written  sermon  is 
not  inspired  ;  and  it  would  also  have  other  salutary  uses.  A 
venerable  and  exemplary  clergyman  once  said,  "  I  take  care 
to  let  my  people  know  that  I  can  preach  extempore ;"  and 
it  would  be  well  if  the  clergy  generally  took  this  hint ;  and 
we  must  recollect,  that  much  extemporaneous  exhortation  is 
expected  from  the  clergy  in  visiting  their  flocks,  as  well  as 
public  speaking  in  behalf  of  missionary  and  other  beneficial 
societies.  It  might,  therefore,  be  a  matter  worthy  the  serious 
consideration  of  churchmen,  whether  the  practice  of  elocu- 
tion should  not  form  a  prominent  article  in  training  for  the 
Christian  ministry — whether  professorships  at  the  Universi- 
ties, instituted  for  this  purpose,  might  not  be  of  essential 
service :  and  the  bishops  should  think  whether  they  should 
not  give  every  encouragement  to  its  success,  by  making  it  a 
prime  question  in  the  examination  of  candidates  for  ordina- 
tion. With  dissenters  it  is  made  a  sine  qua  ?ion  in  relation 
to  entrance  on  the  ministry ;  and  this  circumstance  of  being 
surely  able  to  address  large  bodies  of  men  acceptably,  must 
give  them,  in  no  mean  degree,  an  advantage  ;  especially 
since,  day  by  day,  oratory  is  gaining  power,  and  good  speak- 
ers, who  really  set  free  the  riches  of  a  full  mind,  will  more 
readily  gain  an  ascendency  for  their  principles  in  the  hearts 
of  mankind  at  large. 

But  to  return  to  our  model  clergyman.  Johnson  contin- 
ues :  "  The  grandeur  and  solemnity  of  the  preacher  did  not 
intrude  upon  his  general  behavior  ;  at  the  table  of  his  friends, 
he  was  a  companion  communicative  and  attentive,  of  un- 
affected manners,  of  manly  cheerfulness,  willing  to  please, 
and  easy  to  be  pleased.      His  acquaintance  was  universally 


UR.  JUHiNSOr»<'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  99 

solicited,  and  his  presence  obstructed  no  enjoyment  which 
religion  did  not  forbid.  Though  studious,  he  was  popular  ; 
though  argumentative,  he  was  modest ;  though  inflexible,  he 
was  candid  ;   though  metaphysical,  yet  orthodox." 

Dr.  Johnson  was  a  great  reader  of  sermons  ;  he  thought 
they  made  so  considerable  a  branch  of  English  literature, 
that  any  library  would  be  incomplete  without  a  large  col- 
lection of  them  ;  and  he  was  well  acquainted  with  those  of 
Hooker,  Atterbury,  Tillotson,  South,  Taylor,  Sanderson,  Sher- 
lock, Jortin,  Seed,  Smalridge,  Ogden,  and  many  others. 

There  is  one  letter  of  Dr.  Johnson's,  addressed  to  a  young 
clergyman  (probably  the  Rev.  George  Strahan,  who  was  with 
him  in  his  last  illness),  so  truly  valuable  to  every  pastor,  that 
it  must  be  given  entire  in  this  place,  especially  since  it  con- 
tains some  golden  rules  in  the  composition  of  sermons.  It 
contains  Johnson's  maturest  judgment  on  clerical  duties,  for 
it  bears  the  date  of  August  30th,  1780.      It  runs  thus  : 

"Dear  Sir — Not  many  days  ago.  Dr.  Lawrence  showed 
me  a  letter,  in  which  you  make  mention  of  me  ;  I  hope, 
therefore,  you  will  not  be  displeased  that  I  endeavor  to  pre- 
serve your  good- will  by  some  observations  which  your  letter 
suggested  to  me. 

DO 

"  You  are  afraid  of  falling  into  some  improprieties  in  the 
daily  service,  by  reading  to  an  audience  that  requires  no 
exactness.  Your  fear,  I  hope,  secures  you  from  danger. 
They  who  contract  absurd  habits  are  such  as  have  no  fear. 
It  is  impossible  to  do  the  same  thing  very  often  without  some 
peculiarity  of  manner;  but  that  manner  may  be  good  or  bad, 
and  a  little  care  will  at  least  preserve  it  from  being  bad  ;  to 
make  it  good,  there  must,  I  think,  be  something  of  natural 
or  casual  felicity,  which  can  not  be  taught. 

"  Your  present  method  of  making  your  sermons  seems  very 
judicious.  Few  frequent  preachers  can  be  supposed  to  have 
sermons  more  their  own  than  yours  will  be.  Take  care  to 
register,  somewhere  or  other,  the  authors  from  whom  your 
several  discourses  are  borrowed :  and  do  not  imagine  that 
you  shall  always  remember  even  what,  perhaps  you  now 
think  it  impossible  to  forget. 


100  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCH MANSHIP. 

'-  My  advice,  however,  is,  that  you  attempt,  from  time  to 
time,  an  original  sermon  ;  and  in  the  labor  of  composition, 
do  not  burden  your  mind  with  too  much  at  once  ;  do  not 
exact  from  yourself  at  one  effort  of  excogitation  propriety  of 
thought  and  elegance  of  expression.  Invent  first,  and  then 
embellish.  The  production  of  something,  where  nothing  was 
before,  is  an  act  of  greater  energy  than  the  expansion  or  dec- 
oration of  the  thing  produced.  Set  down  diligently  your 
thoughts  as  they  rise,  in  the  first  words  that  occur  ;  and 
when  you  have  matter,  you  will  easily  give  it  form ;  nor,  per- 
haps, will  this  method  be  always  necessary,  for,  by  habit, 
your  thoughts  and  diction  will  flow  together. 

"The  composition  of  sermons  is  not  very  difficult;  the 
divisions  not  only  help  the  memory  of  the  hearer,  but  direct  the 
judgment  of  the  writer  ;  they  supply  sources  of  invention,  and 
lieep  every  part  in  its  proper  place." 

Dr.  Johnson's  advice  to  young  clergymen  on  the  composi- 
tion of  sermons,  is  just  that  of  the  most  judicious  divines,  as 
given  in  their  several  charges  and  instructions  to  the  clergy. 
Burnet  would  much  rathefr  recommend  the  using  other  men's 
sermons,  than  the  making  any  of  their  own,  where  they  are 
not  masters  of  the  body  of  Divinity,  and  of  the  Scriptures. 
He  thinks  it  an  unreasonable  piece  of  vanity  for  men  to  offer 
their  own  crudities,  when  such  excellent  discourses  are  to  be 
obtained  in  print  :   at  the  same  time  he  hopes,    that  from 
copying  good  models,  ere  long  they  may  "be  able  to  go  with- 
out such  crutches,  and  to  work  without  patterns."      Bishop 
Bull  also  advises  young  ministers  not  at  first  to  trust  to  their 
own  compositions,  but  to  furnish  themselves  with  a  store  of 
the  best  sermons  that  have  been  published  by  the  learned 
divines  of  the  Church,  with  the  view  of  ultimately  attaining 
to  a  good  habit  of  writing  themselves.      On  the  other  hand. 
Bishop  Sprat  (1695)  commences  a  charge  with  an  admoni- 
tion, which  he  declares  he  is  almost  ashamed  to  give  :   "  The 
caution,"  to  use  his  exact  words,  "in  plain  terms,   is  this  ; 
that  every  person  who  undertakes  this  great  employment, 
should  make  it  a  matter  of  religion  and  conscience,  to  preach 
fwthing  but  ichat  is  the  j)ro(luct  of  his  own  studij,  and  of 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHUROHMANSHIP.  101 

his  own  composing.''^      George   Herbert  says,    "Though  the 
world  is  full  of  such  composures"  (excellent  sermons),  "  yet 
every  mans  oivn  is  fittest,  readiest,  and  most  savory  to  him.'' 
Bishop  Mant   strongly  recommends   the  clergy,   for   several 
sufficient  reasons,  to  practice  the  composition  of  sermons,  as 
most  advantageous  to  themselves,  and  to  those  to  whom  they 
preach.      "The  country  parson,"  writes  Herbert,  "  preacheth 
constantly  ;   the  pulpit  is  his  joy  and  his  throne  ;"   and  hardly 
could  this  delight  be  consistent  with  other  than  preaching  his 
own  discourses.      And  again,  the  complexion  of  the  sermon 
suiteth ;  for,  he  says,  "  the  character  of  his  sermon  is  holiness ; 
he  is  not  witty,  or  learned,  or  eloquent,  but  holy."      On  the 
whole,  although  no  minister  should  in  this  case  peremptorily 
deny  himself  the  aid  and  use  of  other  men's  discourses,  yet 
we  may  think  it  most  necessary  that  he  should  exercise  his 
own  abilities  in  carrying  out  his  ordination  vow,   to  "  teach 
the  people  committed  to  his  care  and  charge  ;"   and  although 
at  first  he  may  advisedly  desire  help,  and  his  own  modesty 
may  influence  him  in  this,  yet,  if  there  be  no  prospect  of  his 
being  able  to  do  these  things  of  himself — if  neither  his  own 
love  of  composition,  nor  his  possession  of  abilities,  urge  him — 
then  we  may  very  reasonably  ask.  What  business  has  he  in 
the  ministerial  office  at  all,  seeing  that  preaching  is  a  princi- 
pal part  of  it?      Is  he  always  to  be  an  indolent  copyist,    a 
mere  retailer  of  other  men's  goods  ;   a  sapless,  lifeless  tree  in 
regard  to  this  spiritual  bearing  of  fruit  ?      Surely  all  our  noble 
divines   would  condemn  such  a   man  in   such  a  course  ;   the 
people  at  large  would  discern  his  incapacity  and   unfaithful- 
ness ;   and,  most  of  all,  would  the  man,  if  any  right  feeling  be 
in  him,  utterly,  however  secretly,  condemn  himself :   for  in  no 
other  profession  would  such  a  course  be  tolerated,  or  be  hon- 
orably undertaken, 

Dr.  Johnson  proceeds  in  his  admirable  letter  : 

"What  I  like  least  in  your  letter  is  your  account  of  the 
manners  of  your  parish  ;  from  which  I  gather,  that  it  has 
been  long  neglected  by  the  parson.  The  Dean  of  Carlisle 
(Dr.  Percy),  who  was  then  a  little  rector  in  Northampton- 
shire, told  me,  that  it  might  be  discerned  v^-hether  or  no  there 


102  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CIIURCHMANSHIP. 

was  a  clergyman  resident  in  a  parish,  by  the  civil  or  savage 
manner  of  the  people.  Such  a  congregation  as  yours  stands 
in  need  of  much  reformation,  and  I  would  not  have  you  think 
it  impossible  to  reform  them.  A  very  savage  parish  was 
civilized  by  a  decayed  gentlewoman,  who  came  among  them 
to  teach  a  petty  school.  My  learned  friend,  Dr.  Wheeler,  of 
Oxford,  when  he  was  a  young  man,  had  the  care  of  a  neigh- 
boring parish  for  fifteen  pounds  a  year,  which  he  was  never 
paid  ;  but  he  counted  it  a  convenience,  that  it  compelled  him 
to  make  a  sermon  weekly.  One  woman  he  could  not  bring 
to  the  communion  ;  and  when  he  reproved  or  exhorted  her, 
she  only  answered,  that  she  was  no  scholar.  He  was  advised 
to  set  some  good  woman  or  man  of  the  parish,  a  little  wiser 
than  herself,  to  talk  to  her  in  a  language  level  to  her  mind. 
Such  honest,  I  may  call  them  holy  artifices,  must  be  practiced 
by  every  clergyman,  for  all  Qiieans  must  be  tried  hy  ivhich 
souls  may  he  saved.  Talk  to  your  people,  however,  as  much 
as  you  can  ;  and  you  will  find,  that  the  more  frequently  you 
converse  with  them  upon  religious  subjects,  the  more  willing- 
ly they  will  attend,  and  the  more  submissively  they  will 
learn.  A  clergyman's  diligence  always  makes  him  venera- 
ble. I  think  I  have  now  only  to  say,  that,  in  the  moment- 
ous work  you  have  undertaken,  I  pray  God  to  bless  you. 

"I  am,  sir,  &c., 

"Sam.  Johnson." 

In  reading  the  above,  we  think  of  Hannah  More  and  her 
schools  at  Mendip,  albeit  she  was  no  decayed  gentlewoman  ; 
and  the  "  holy  artifice  "  brings  to  our  minds  the  "  catching 
with  guile"  of  St  Paul.*  And  what  is  of  more  service  than 
a  continued  system  of  parochial  visiting  ?  what  wins  the  hearts 
of  the  poor  more  ?  what  better  than  a  grave  and  judicious 
talking  to  the  people  ?  not  religious  gossip — not  cant — not 
light  observations — but  sober  and  reasonable  discourse,  warn- 
ing, rebuking,  instructing,  comforting.  The  poor  treasure  up 
the  sayings  of  their  minister,  and  a  word  in  season  may  be 
worth  many  sermons,  which  persons  take  not  to  themselves : 

=«=  1  Cor.  xii.  16. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCH MANSIIIP.  ]03 

and  well  do  I  remember  the  praise  which  a  farmer  accorded 
to  an  active  and  pious  country  clergyman  :  "  Sir,"  said  he, 
"  that  was  the  first  gentleman  that  ever  came  and  talked 
with  us,  and  he  woiild  walk  by  the  side  of  the  men  when  at 
plow,  speaking  to  them  on  the  welfare  of  their  souls.  He 
has  always  been  the  same  man,  and  so  we  all  love  him." 
This  was  spoken  of  an  aged  pastor,  of  one  who  had  minis- 
tered in  the  same  parish  for  upward  of  forty  years — the 
same  good  man.  all  the  while,  whose  motto  might  well  have 
been  taken  from  Johnson,  "  Talk  to  your  people."  Happy 
are  those  clergymen  who  can  exercise  the  privilege  of  talking 
to  all  their  people  ;  for,  alas  I  our  church  too  often  places 
one  man  amid  thousands,  and  still  expects  his  ministry  to  be 
not  only  sufficient,  but  successful.  Rightly  did  Dr.  John- 
son remark,  '•  That  a  London  parish  was  a  very  comfortless 
thing,  for  the  clergyman  seldom  knew  the  face  of  one  out  of 
ten  of  his  parishioners  ;"  and  what  would  he  now  say  to  the 
cases  which  the  large  manufacturing  towns  present  ? 

It  may  be  mentioned,  that  he  was  a  great  advocate  of 
plain  preaching,  and  thought  that  the  established  clergy  did 
not  preach  plain  enough  ;  for  "  polished  periods  and  glitter- 
ing sentences  flew  over  the  heads  of  the  common  people  with- 
out any  impression  upon  their  hearts."  He  thought  the 
adoption  of  a  plain  and  familiar  style,  the  only  way  of  doing 
good  to  the  common  people,  and  which  "clergymen  of  genius 
and  learning  ought  to  do  from  a  principle  of  duty,  when  it  is 
suited  to  their  congregations  :  a  practice  for  which  they  will 
be  praised  by  men  of  sense."  And  thus,  for  example,  "to 
insist  against  drunkenness  as  a  crime,  because  it  debases 
reason,  the  noblest  faculty  of  man,  would  be  of  no  service 
to  the  common  people  ;  but  to  tell  them  they  may  die  in  a 
fit  of  drunkenness,  and  show  them  how  dreadful  that  would 
be,  can  not  fail  to  make  a  deep  impression  ;"  of  course,  backed 
by  the  awful  truth,  that  a  drunkard  can  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.  And  he  added,  to  Boswell,  "  Sir,  when 
your  Scotch  clergy  give  up  their  homely  manner,  religion 
will  soon  decay  in  that  country." 

In  looking  on  the  above  remarks,  we  must  recollect  that 
Johnson  is  speaking  in  a  les.s  educated  age  than  the  present; 


104  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

an  age  prolific  of  more  great  men,  but  in  which  knowledge 
was  not  so  generally  diffused.  He  thought  that  the  Meth- 
odists had  the  advantage  in  plain  speaking,  but  now  we  find 
the  Methodist  preacher  to  be  lagging  in  the  rear  of  the 
schoolmaster,  and  that  a  more  educated  flock  requires  a 
higher  tone  of  preaching,  and  would  be  more  capable  of 
appreciating  the  more  refined  style  of  argument,  as  rejected 
by  Johnson  in  the  case  of  drunkenness.  Baxter,  we  are  told, 
always  contrived  that  some  part  of  his  sermon  should  be 
above  the  comprehension  of  the  mass  of  his  hearers.  On 
the  other  hand,  Bishop  Burnet  says,  "  A  preacher  is  to  fancy 
himself  as  in  the  room  of  the  most  unlearned  man  in  his 
whole  parish."  There  is  a  way,  however,  of  making  the 
same  discourse  perfectly  acceptable  both  to  rich  and  poor, 
learned  and  unlearned  ;  and,  indeed,  the  rich  and  learned 
often  most  loathe  fine  sermons.  It  is  said  that  the  present 
rector  of  St.  Giles's  (the  Rev.  J.  Endell  Tyler)  was  pre- 
sented to  that  preferment  by  the  late  Lord  Liverpool,  when 
Prime  Minister,  because  he  was  a  plain  and  instructive 
preacher :  his  lordship  intimating  that  his  time  was  so  occu- 
pied, that  when  he  went  to  church,  he  wished  not  to  sit  and 
listen  to  argumentative  and  learned  discourses,  but  to  be  in- 
formed, as  clearly  as  possible,  on  all  the  leading  essentials, 
both  in  faith  and  practice,  of  our  most  holy  religion.  Many 
a  fine  preacher  displayed  his  eloquence  before  the  Prime 
Minister  of  the  Crown,  but  the  plain  one  succeeded  in  best 
winning  his  approbation  and  regard. 

Johnson  was  a  great  supporter  of  the  liberty  of  the  pulpit, 
and  his  defense  of  the  Rev,  James  Thompson,  minister  of 
Dunfermline,  will  amply  reward  perusal.  When  it  was 
read  to  Burke,  he  was  highly  pleased,  and  exclaimed,  "Well, 
he  does  his  M'^ork  in  a  workman-like  manner."  The  counsel 
of  Jeremy  Taylor  may  generally  be  the  best  to  be  observed : 
"  Spare  no  man's  sin,  but  meddle  with  no  man's  person  ; 
neither  name  any  man,  or  make  him  to  be  suspected — he 
that  doth  otherwise,  makes  his  sermon  to  be  a  libel;"  and 
Dr.  Johnson  argues,  "  A  minister  who  has  in  his  congrega- 
tion a  man  of  open  and  scandalous  wickedness,  may  warn  his 
parishioners  to  shun  his  conversation.      To  warn  them  is  not 


DLi.  .JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  105 

only  lawful,  but  not  to  warn  thein  would  be  criminal.  He 
may  warn  them  one  by  one  in  friendly  converse,  or  by  a 
parochial  visitation.      But  if  he  may  warn  each  man  singly, 

what  should  forbid  him  to  warn  them  all  together  ? 

And  of  a  sudden  and  solemn  publication  the  impression  is 
deeper,  and  the  warning  more  effectual."  Hear  an  Apostle: 
Them  that  sin  (probably  signifying  the  people*  rather  than 
the  presbyters,  of  whom  he  was  speaking)  rehuhc  hcfore  all, 
that  others  also  may  fear  ;  and  Titus  also  was  to  rchiike 
all  classes  of  the  people  icith  all  authority :  certainly  the 
former  text  carries  with  it  a  personal  application. 

We  have  seen  Johnson  deliberately  refusing  to  undertake 
the  ministerial  ofEce,  when  offered  to  him  under  tempting 
circumstances ;  and  we  have  seen  that  he  understood  well 
the  nature  of  a  clergyman's  duties.  In  other  w^ays  in  al- 
lusion to  clerical  conduct,  we  find  him  making  admirable 
observations.  On  one  occasion,  some  clergymen  in  his  com- 
pany carried  convivial  joviality  to  excess,  thinking  all  the 
while  that  he  Avould  be  entertained.  But  Johnson  sat  silent 
and  grave  for  some  time  :  at  last,  turning  to  Beauclerk,  he 
said,  hy  no  means  in  a  ivhisiper,  "This  merriment  of  parsons 
is  mio-htv  offensive."  Sir  Walter  Scott  tells  us  of  a  minis- 
ter,  who  held  a  high  character  as  a  leader  of  the  strict  and 
rigid  Presbyterian  party  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  yet  was 
remarkable  for  the  way  he  shone  in  convivial  society.  "He 
was  ever  gay  amid  the  gayest  :"  when  it  once  occurred  to 
some  one  present  to  ask,  wdiat  one  of  his  elders  would  think, 
should  he  see  his  pastor  in  such  a  merry  mood.  "  Think," 
replied  the  doctor  ;  "  why,  he  would  not  believe  his  own 
eyes." 

In  the  case  of  "  believing  one's  own  eyes,"  refinedly  called 
"  ocular  demonstration,"  there  is  an  anecdote  told  of  the  late 
Rev.  Howland  Hill.  Late  on  one  evening  he  ordered  his 
carriage,  and  bade  his  coachman  drive  him  to   Drury-lane 

*  1  Tim.  V.  20.  "  It  is  not  agreed,"  observes  Bloomfield,  "  whether 
the  presbytc7-s,  or  the  people  at  large^  are  here  to  be  understood.  The 
context  favors  the  former  view ;  but  the  air  of  the  sentence,  and  the 
change  of  number,  rather  require  the  latter."  Notes  on  the  Greek  Tes- 
tament, by  the  Rev.  S.  T.  Bloomfield,  D.  D.,  F.  S.  A.,  vol.  ii.  p.  427. 


106  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

theatre.  The  man  stared,  hesitated,  thought  his  master 
mad;  but  "To  the  theatre!''''  was  the  authoritative  com- 
mand. Down  he  was  set  at  the  theatre,  and,  to  his  coach- 
man's utter  bewilderment,  purchased  a  ticket,  and  walked 
in.  Rowland  Hill  entered  a  box,  fixed  his  eyes  sternly  on 
its  occupant,  exclaiming,  "  Oh,  you  are  there,  are  you  I" 
and  abruptly  quitting  the  theatre,  drove  home.  The  poor 
and  almost  petrified  occupant  was  a  preacher  at  his  own 
chapel,  who  had  been  reported  to  him  as  a  frequenter  of  the 
theatre,  but  which  report  he  would  not  credit,  until  "  seeing 
was  believing"  to  him. 

That  the  rebuker  should  have  clean  hands  is  an  important 
consideration  in  the  value  of  a  rebuke.  In  the  above  case 
we  may  imagine  it  was  indeed  withering  I  But  a  story  is 
told  in  a  hunting  county,  in  which  a  clergyman  delivered 
himself  by  his  ready  wit.  A  venerable  archdeacon,  who  had 
heard  of  this  clergyman's  hunting  propensities,  sent  for  him 
to  lecture  him  on  the  subject.  Soundly  did  he  administer 
his  rebuke,  long  was  he  about  it,  while  his  poor  victim  spake 
not  a  word  in  his  defense.  Suddenly  the  archdeacon  per- 
ceiving a  smile  on  the  culprit's  countenance,  said,  "  Ah  I  I 
see  my  admonition  has  little  effect  upon  you  :  alas  I  you  too 
much  resemble  Gallio  in  the  Scriptures,  who  cared  not  for 
these  things."  Now  was  the  climax;  and  the  expected 
penitent,  drawing  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  and  fixing  a 
wickedly  merry  eye  on  his  reverend  elder,  replied,  "  Mr. 
Archdeacon,  I  have  heard  you  with  patience  :  you  may  have 
rebuked  me  rightly,  and  I  may  be  a  Gallio  ;  but  this  I  have 
to  say,  that  if  I  am  a  Gallio,  your  son  Richard  is  a  Tall)?'- 
ho  ;  and  so,  Mr.  Archdeacon,  I  wish  you  a  very  good  morn- 
ing."     The  son  Richard  was  a  noted  clerical  fox-hunter  I 

Nevertheless,  a  sporting  parson  is  an  abomination,  and, 
let  us  hope,  nearly  an  extinct  one.  Let  a  clergyman  be 
given  to  sporting,  or  let  his  "  talk  be  of  bullocks,"  and  every 
one  feels  that  he  is  out  of  his  proper  element  :  for  to  him, 
with  what  propriety  may 

"  The  master  of  the  pack 
Cry,  '  Well  done,  saint !'  and  clap  hhu  on  the  back.""* 

*  Cowper. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  107 

No  sermons  that  he  may  preach,  no  amount  of  alms  that  he 
may  give,  no  moral  rectitude  in  temporal  things,  will  ever 
lead  the  people  (^however  they  may  partially  disguise  it  in  his 
presence)  to  look  upon  him  with  reverence,  or  to  regard  aiid 
love  him  in  their  hearts  as  a  pastor  that  is  doing  his  duty  to 
the  church,  and  is  sufficiently  not  minding  earthly  things. 
If  such  a  one  would  considerately  listen  to  the  poorer  mem- 
bers of  the  flock  honestly  and  reasonably  speaking  their 
minds  in  this  matter,  he  would  neither  mount  the  hunter 
nor  carry  the  gun  for  one  hour  more  ;  for,  if  he  had  a  heart, 
such  comments  would  subdue  its  love  of  that  which  prevents 
his  spiritual  visitings  of  the  sick,  the  ignorant,  and  the 
afflicted,  and  makes  more  dissenters  from  the  Apostolic 
church  than  any  other  cause.  Bishop  Mant,  and  many 
other  prelates,  have  loudly  spoken  against  it  ;  and  all  may 
ask,  With  what  propriety  can  a  clergyman  enter  a  cottage 
to  pray  with  its  afflicted  inhabitant,  and  leave  his  gun  and 
dogs  at  the  door,  or  stop  in  the  exciting  career  of  a  fox-hunt- 
ing chase  ?  It  is  perfectly  true,  there  is  no  sin  in  either  of 
these  amusements,  if  the  sin  of  cruelty  can  be  separated 
from  them  ;  but  as  Bishop  Gibson  observes,  "  the  laws  of 
the  church  have  in  all  ages  restrained  clergymen  from  many 
freedoms  and  diversions,  which  in  others  are  accounted  al- 
lowable and  innocent  ;  being  such  exercises  as  are  too 
eager  and  violent,  and  therefore  unagreeable  to  that  sedate- 
ness  and  gravity  w^hich  becomes  our  functions,"  &c.  John- 
son used  to  say,  that  the  reason  a  man  found  pleasure  in 
hunting  was,  because  he  "  feels  his  own  vacuity  less  in. 
action  than  when  at  rest ;"  but  surely  a  well  disciplined 
and  cultivated  mind  never  know^s  what  vacuity  is,  and 
would  least  of  all  resort,  for  its  cure,  to  violent  locomotion 
of  the  body.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  observed,  that  "  the  real 
character  of  a  man  was  found  out  by  his  amusements.'"' 
Boswell  makes  a  good  remark,  to  the  effect,  that  if  the  clergy 
knew  how  much  an  indiscriminate  mixmg  in  the  pleasures 
of  society  "  lessens  them  in  the  eyes  of  those  whom  they 
think  to  please  by  it,  they  would  feel  themselves  much 
mortified," 

Dr.   Johnson   always  thought  that   a  due  solemnity   and 


108  DR.  JOHiNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

propriety  of  maimer  was  to  be  expected  from  bishops,  and  a 
corresponding  respect  paid  to  tlieir  office  and  venerable  char- 
acter.* It  would  not  be  immoral  in  a  bishop,  he  said,  "to 
whip  a  top  in  Grosvenor-square  ;  but,  if  he  did,  I  hope  the 
boys  would  fall  upon  him,  and  apply  the  whip  to  him. 
There  are  gradations  in  conduct  ;  there  is  morality,  decency, 
propriety.  None  of  these  should  be  violated  by  a  bishop." 
He  also  disapproved  of  bishops  giving  dinners  during  Passion- 
week,  or  going  to  routs  ;  at  least,  of  their  staying  at  these 
latter  longer  than  their  presence  commanded  respect.  In 
talking  on  this  point,  Boswell  happily  observed,  "When  a 
bishop  places  himself  in  a  situation  where  he  has  no  distinct 
character,  and  is  of  no  consequence,  he  degrades  the  dignity 
of  his  order  :"  on  which  Johnson  remarked  to  Mrs.  Thrale, 
"  Mr.  Boswell,  madam,  has  said  it  as  correctly  as  it  could 
be."  Not  only  in  the  dignitaries  of  the  church,  but  in  the 
clergy  generally,  Dr.  Johnson  looked  for  a  particular  decorum 
and  delicacy  of  behavior,  with  more  seriousness  than  others 
of  mankind,  and  a  suitable  composure  of  manners.  At  the 
same  time,  it  must  be  told  to  the  laity,  that  there  is  not  a 
higher  standard  laid  down  in  the  Scriptures  for  the  clergy 
than  for  themselves  ;  and  the  good  pattern  of  ministers  is 
not  one  which  they  are  to  look  upon  and  admire  only,  but  to 
follow. 


*  How  truly  does  the  celebrated  Cheshire  petition,  presented  by  Sir 
Thomas  Ashton  in  the  House  of  Lords  commence ;  "  When  we  con- 
sider that  bishops  were  instituted  in  the  times  of  the  Apostles  ;  that  they 
were  the  great  lights  of  the  church  in  all  the  first  General  Councils ; 
that  so  many  of  them  sowed  the  seeds  of  religion  in  their  bloody  and 
rescued  Christianity  from  utter  extirpation  in  the  primitive  heathen  pei*- 
secutions  ;  that  to  them  we  owe  the  redemption  of  the  purity  of  the 
Gospel  we  now  profess  from  Romish  corruption  ;  that  many  of  them,  for 
the  pro})agation  of  the  truth,  became  such  glorious  martyrs.^^  &c.  &c. ;  to 
pray  the  present  removal  of  them  we  can  not  conceive  to  relish  of  jus- 
tice or  charity,  nor  can  we  join  with  them." — Nalson,  vol.  ii.  p.  759. 
From  Southey's  Commonplace  Book,  p.  39. 

The  petitioners  go  on  to  the  state,  that  in  lieu  of  twenty-six  Ordina- 
ries.,  ''  easily  responsible  to  parliaments,'*  they  fear  to  become  exposed 
to  the  "  mere  arbitrary  government  of  a  numerous  Presbytery,  who, 
together  with  their  Ruling  Elders,  will  arise  to  nearly  forty  thousand 
Church  governors.''' 


CHAPTER   IX. 

HIS    CIIURCHMAXSHIP. 

Other  points  in  Dr.  Jolinson's  cliurchmanship  demand  our 
attention.  It  is  certain,  that  the  Scriptures  invest  places 
erected  for  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  Being  with  a  pecuHar 
sacredness.  No  one  can  read  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  first 
Book  of  Kings,  and  also  think  of  the  Shechinah,  and  not 
acknowledge  this.  It  is  proper,  too,  that  our  churches  should 
be  built  after  a  peculiar  pattern  in  architecture,  and  manifest 
by  their  outward  and  inward  appearance  that  they  are  set 
apart  for  the  duties  of  religion  only.  They  should  also  be 
made  more  comfortable,  so  that  the  cold  and  dampness  may 
not  be  inconvenient  to  the  body  when  engaged  in  devotion, 
especially  to  feeble  or  aged  persons.  Perhaps  it  would  be 
highly  advantageous,  if  popular  prejudice  would  so  far  relax 
as  to  allow  pictures  to  reappear  on  the  walls  of  our  churches  ; 
we  have  them  in  the  windows,  why  not  on  the  walls  ?  Great 
instruction  is  derived  from  pictures  ;  we  teach  children  by 
them  ;  we  can  in  many  things  more  readily  give  an  adult 
an  idea  of  a  building,  a  man,  a  scene,  by  showing  him  a 
picture,  than  by  using  thousands  of  words.  "VYe  have  sacred 
pictures  in  our  houses,  and  we  worship  them  not ;  can  it  for 
a  moment  be  imagined  that  they  would  be  worshiped  in 
churches  ^  Are  we  not  afraid,  where  no  fear  is  ?  alarmed 
at  a  shadow,  a  senseless  echo,  a  nonentity  ?  Suppose  the 
richer  of  the  laity  would  transfer  some  of  their  beautiful  pic- 
tures from  the  walls  of  their  mansions  to  those  of  the  church, 
(and  in  this  we  should  have  the  sanction  of  Luther),  not  only 
would  churches  become  the  conservatories  of  the  best  speci- 
mens of  the  art  of  painting,  as  well  as  of  architecture  or 
sculpture,  but  the  people  would  reap  the  advantage  of  having 
their   churches   made   more    comfortable,   inasmuch   as   the 


110  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

church  must  be  kept  aired  and  dry  for  the  sake  of  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  pictures  :  churches  would  not  then  be  left  to 
the  tender  mercies  and  tastes  of  churchwardens.  Yet,  with 
the  cherished  idea  of  a  church  as  a  place  of  peculiar  scanc- 
tity,  and  to  be  adorned  with  every  decent  allurement  to  devo- 
tion, we  need  not  object  to  Dr.  Johnson's  reasoning,  when  he 
says,  "  We  may  allow  fancy  to  suggest  certain  ideas  in  cer- 
tain places,  but  reason  must  always  be  heard,  when  she  tells 
us,  that  those  ideas  and  those  places  have  no  natural  or  neces- 
sary relation.  When  we  enter  a  church,  ive  habitually  re- 
call to  mind  the  duty  of  adoration,  hut  ive  must  not  omit 
adoratioji  for  want  of  a  teini:>le ;  because  we  know,  and 
ought  to  remember,  that  the  universal  Lord  is  every  where 
present  ;  and  that,  therefore,  to  come  to  lona,  or  to  Jerusalem, 
though  it  may  he  useful,  can  not  he  7iecessaryy 

How  wise  is  this  ;  what  a  happy  moderation  on  a  mat- 
ter which  runs  away  with  weak  or  superstitious  minds  I 
We  need  not  be  of  those  who  would  be  followers  of  Mrs. 
Adams,  when  she  told  Parson  Adams  that  religion  should 
not  be  talked  of  out  of  church  ;  yet,  if  we  can  ornament  a 
church,  and  by  doing  so  produce  a  substantial  benefit,  we 
ought  at  once  to  consider  how  it  can  be  worthily  accomplish-, 
ed.  Dr.  Johnson  loved  to  cherish  a  feeling  of  veneration. 
"  I  look,"  he  said,  "  with  reverence  upon  every  place  that  has 
been  set  apart  for  religion,"  although  he  spake  of  a  chapel  m 
ruins ;  and  he  kept  off  his  hat  while  he  was  v»nthin  its  walls. 
Nor  may  this  feeling  be  without  its  practical  effect,  for,  after 
having  visited  the  cathedral  on  the  island  of  Icolmkill,  Bos- 
well,  who  was  a  Presbyterian,  writes,  "  I  hoped  that  ever 
after  having  been  in  this  holy  place,  I  should  maintain  an 
exemplary  conduct." 

Dr.  Johnson  thought  it  proper  to  observe  the  holy  days  of 
the  church.  Some  one  having  objected  to  the  "  observance 
of  days,  and  months,  and  years"  (Gal.  iv.  10,  signifying 
Jewish  days,  months,  &c.,  napaTTjpELode,  siiperstitiously  ob- 
serve), he  answered,  "  The  church  does  not  superstitibusly 
observe  days,  merely  as  days,  but  as  memorials  of  important 
facts."  At  another  time  he  remarked  to  Bos  well,  "  Sir,  the 
holy-days  observed  by  our  church  are  of  great  use  in  religion." 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSrilP.  Ill 

So  thought  Patrick,  Hooker,  Taylor,^  Hammond,  Tillotson, 
and  other  pious  divines  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Let  us  ponder  a  little  on  this  subject.  The  number  of 
the  holy-days  of  the  Church  of  England  is  not  grievous.  The 
political  economist  need  not  dread  their  usurpation  on  the 
labors  which  build  up  his  mammon.  They  are  not  those  al- 
luded to  by  Bishop  Horsley  in  the  ordinance  of  Bishop  Niger, 
as  ratified  by  Nicholas  the  Fifth  (in  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Sixth),  after  the  interpretation  by  Archbishop  Arundel  and 
Innocent  the  Seventh — neither  in  the  former  provincial  con- 
stitution of  Archbishop  Islip — but  simply  and  only  those 
days  tvhich  have  peculiar  reference  to  our  Lord  hhnself,  to 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  Apostles  and  Evangelists.  These, 
which  include  Christmas  Day,  Ash  Wednesday,  Good  Friday, 
Easter  Monday  and  Tuesday,  and  Whit-Monday  and  Tues- 
day, will  be  just  thirty  days  in  the  year,  and  in  every  year 
some  of  these  holy-days  will  occur  on  the  Sunday,  We  speak 
of  the  Saints'  days  of  the  church,  but  it  must  be  recollected 
that  it  is  only  of  the  New  Testament  saints  that  we  speak  ; 
and,  certainly,  if  persons  would  attend  the  church  service, 
and  listen  to  the  appropriate  lessons,  they  would  gain  such  a 
knowledge  of  these  scriptural  patterns,  as  would  be,  in  John- 
son's words,  "of  great  use  in  religion."  Well  do  our  people 
know  that  the  Saint  above  all  saints  is  Jesus  Christ,  and 
that  all  the  holy  saints  put  together  have  but  touched  the 
hem  of  his  garment  I  yet,  he  who  despises  an  earthly  saint, 
will  surely  never  have  honored  Christ,  because  he  who  de- 
spises a  lesser  degree  of  any  thing,  must  confessedly  despise 
the  greater.  If  a  man  love  the  Lord  Jesus,  he  will  love 
the  genuine  light  of  the  Lord,  Avherever  it  may  be  seen,  and 
thus  wilJ  love  the  least  of  the  saints,  as  showing  forth  even  a 
spark  of  the  radiance  of  the  Saint  of  saints  ;  and  how  much 
more  will  he  love  to  hear  of  those  whose  lives  are  bound  up 
with  the  life  of  our  blessed  Lord  I 

There  are  some  other  days  which  can  not  be  called,  strict- 
ly, Saints'  days  or  Festivals  of  the  church,  because  they  are 
only  locally  observed — the  wakes,  or  feast-days,  of  the  diller- 

*  See  Rules  and  Advices  to  the  Clergy,  by  Jeremy  Taylor. 


112  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHUROHMANSHIP. 

ent  parishes.  The  true  account  of  their  origin  may  be  best 
derived  from  Dugdale  ;*  and  it  appears,  in  regard  (according 
to  heathen  custom)  that  many  oxen  used  to  be  sacrificed  to 
devils,  some  solemnity  (on  the  introduction  of  Christianity) 
ought  to  be  allowed  in  Heu  thereof;  and  on  the  day  of  the 
dedication,  or  festivals  of  those  saints  whose  relics  were  placed 
there,  they  were  to  set  up  tents  about  the  temples  converted 
into  churches,  and  celebrate  the  solemnity  with  religious 
feasting,  so  that  beasts  should  not  be  sacrificed  to  the  devil, 
hut  slain  to  he  eaten,  praising  God.  This  is  the  plain  insti- 
tution of  wakes,  which,  at  one  time,  were  eminently  religious 
services,  but  now  universally  abused  in  their  observance.  Of 
holy-days  in  general,  as  days  of  leisure  and  recreation,  there 
is  great  difference  of  opinion  ;  and  we  must  all  allow  that  a 
holy-day,  to  be  a  blessing,  and  not  a  curse,  must  be  well 
superintended  and  well  spent.  "  They  reproach  the  Catholic 
religion,"  writes  Southey,  "with  the  number  of  its  holy- 
days,  never  considering  how  the  want  of  holy-days  breaks 
down  and  brutalizes  the  laboring  class,  and  that  ivhere  they 
occur  seldom,  they  are  uniformly  abused  f  and  Lord  John 
Manners,  a  vigorous  supporter  of  the  recreations  of  the  poorer 
classes,  says,  "  The  abuse  springs  from  the  non-use."  On 
the  other  hand,  we  find  these  holy-days  turned  to  evil  pur- 
poses when  the  using  of  them  was  frequent.  Prior  to  the 
Reformation  we  find  the  Abbot  of  Ely  and  his  clergy  going 
forth,  in  regard  to  these  festivals,  to  exhort  the  people  "  to 
pray  devoutly,  and  not  betake  themselves  to  drinking  and 
debauchery."  Bishop  Patrick  alludes,  in  quotation  from  one 
of  the  Fathers,  to  men  getting  drunk  on  the  tomb-stones  of 
the  saints.  And  by  an  Act  of  Convocation,  passed  by  Henry 
the  Eighth,  in  the  year  1536,  their  numbers  were  diminished, 
the  feast  of  every  church  being  ordered  to  be  kept  upon  one 
and  the  same  day  every  where  :  this  Act  was  repealed  in 
the  time  of  Charles  the  First,  and  wakes  were  further  en- 
couraged by  Charles  the  Second.  It  is  certain  there  is  no 
improvement  in  them  now  ;  neither,  as  yet,  can  an  English- 
man, generally  speaking,  keep  a  holy-day  of  any  kind  in   a 

*  Letter  from  Pope  Gregory  to  Mellitus,  Bishop  of  London.     Dug- 
dale's  Monasticon,  vol.  ii.  p.  323. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  113 

rational  manner  :  the  doing  so  must  be  the  work  of  time, 
and  brought  about  by  the  fruits  of  education. 

But  this,  like  too  many  other  matters,  is  made  a  money 
question.  Wages  are  so  scantly  given,  that  the  laborer  does 
not  desire  the  keeping  of  a  holy-day,  unless  his  wages  are 
continued  to  him.  Formerly  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed 
(6th  Henry  VI.)  to  order  this.  Where  laborers  are  hired  by 
the  year,  they  should  be  treated  as  servants  of  the  year,  and 
not  of  the  day  :  but  many  are  hired  only  by  the  week  or 
day,  and  in  these  cases  it  would  be  difficult,  by  a  legislative 
enactment,  to  guard  the  poor  man.  This  shows  more  and 
more,  that  before  the  holy-days  of  the  church,  can  be  uni- 
versally kept,  there  must  be  a  liberal  and  pious  spirit  abroad ; 
and  the  farmer's  pride  should  be,  to  see  his  laborers  more 
contented,  more  grateful,  and  more  cheerfully  working  on 
their  days  of  work,  through  having  a  day  of  change  and  leis- 
ure allowed  them,  somewhat  more  than  one  day  in  seven 
gives  them. 

The  incapability  of  rightly  observing  holy-days  certainly 
argues  a  depravity  of  manners.  These  pious  days,  as  well 
as  the  sacred  seasons  of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Whitsuntide, 
have  been  miserably  perverted  from  the  sacred  intention  of 
the  primitive  institutions,  while  the  other  saints'  days  in  the 
Calendar  have  been  allowed  to  pass  by  in  cold  indifference 
and  utter  neglect.  Surely  national  and  individual  piety  has 
been  sorely  wounded  by  such  a  course,  and  much  devotional 
feeling  and  sacred  affection  gone  away  from  the  once  warmer 
and  kinder  hearts  and  minds  of  the  community  at  large.  It 
is  gratifying  that  the  church  still  keeps  up  her  festivals  and 
saints'  days  in  great  degree  ;  and  if  old  John  Chrysostora 
were  to  walk  into  one  of  our  parish  churches  on  Christmas- 
day,  he  would  still  find  this  "  metropolis  of  days,"  as  he  call- 
ed it,  kept,  as  in  his  own  time,  with  prayer,  sermon,  and 
sacrament  :  and  though  he  would  be  among  the  present 
Christians  something  like  Caractacus  among  modern  Britons, 
yet  he  would  probably  find  much  that  would  gratify  his 
mind  and  rejoice  his  heart. 

But  if  we  can  not  obtain  days  of  recreation  for  the  humbler 
classes,  when  squire  and  laborer  may,  at  least  in  rural  dis- 


114  DR.  JOHNSO>;'S  CHULICIIMANSHIP. 

tricts,  mingle  harmlessly  together,  the  former  maintaining  such 
a  character  as  our  poet  Vv^ordsworth  writes  of  one  in  time  past, 

"Rich  in  love 
And  sweet  humanity,  he  was  himself 
To  the  degree  that  he  desired,  beloved," 

Still,  may  not  leave  to  attend  on  the  services  of  the  church 
be  obtained  ?  In  good  George  Herbert's  days  we  learn  that 
the  plowmen,  on  hearing  the  tinkle  of  his  church  bell,  used 
to  tie  up  their  horses,  and  proceed  at  once  to  prayers  in  his 
church.  And  may  it  not  be  offered  as  a  suggestion,  whether 
it  would  not  be  desirable  that  the  church  should  order  special 
prayers  for  such  days,  different  to  those  used  on  Sundays  ?  and 
indeed,  we  may  enlarge  the  question,  and  ask  whether  it 
would  not  be  desirable  that  there  should  be  different  prayers 
for  every  day  in  the  week — specially  with  a  growing  desire 
to  carry  into  practice  the  church's  theory  of  daily  prayer  ? 
Some  persons  may  be  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  such  change, 
and  ask,  Are  not  our  wants  every  day  the  same,  and  to  be 
satisfied  by  the  same  petitions  ?  are  not  our  prayers  excel- 
lent ?  Yes,  this  may  be  true,  but  we  must  recollect  that 
sameness  is  not  pleasing  to  the  human  mind  :  and  that  a 
bad  effect  is  likely  to  be  produced  on  minister  and  people  by 
the  daily  repetition  of  the  same  prayers  ;  for  they  will  prob- 
ably lose  their  effect,  and  lead  to  formality.  We  may  greatly 
admire  one  of  Shakspeare's  nobler  plays,  and  yet  if  that 
same  play  were  read  to  us  every  day,  we  should  become 
wearied  in  the  hearing  of  it.  And  w^hat  beautiful  and  fer- 
vent prayers  might  the  church  select  from  the  ancient  times  I 
and  with  this  advantage,  that  many  of  them  might  be  so 
arranged  as  to  be  serviceable  for  domestic  as  well  as  public 
use  ;  and  this  is  a  want  which  the  American  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  does  not  overlook.  Let  us  hope  these  things 
may  meet  with  attention  in  the  higher  quarters  :  and,  mean- 
while, let  us  be  thankful,  that  the  regret  of  the  Scotch  Pres- 
byterian Boswell  need  not  be  ours,  when  he  observes,  "  I  am 
sorry  to  have  it  to  say,  that  Scotland  is  the  only  country, 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  where  the  great  events  of  our  religion 
are  not  solemnly  commemorated  by  its  ecclesiastical  Establish- 
ment on  days  set  apart  for  tho  purpose." 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  115 

Joliiisoii  observed  the  days  of  Passion  Week  with  much 
humiUty  and  reverence,  always  fasting  strictly  on  Good  Fri- 
day. His  remarks  on  the  solemn  nature  of  this  period  of  the 
year  given  in  the  "Rambler,"  will  be  well  remembered  by 
those  who  have  once  perused  them.  There  was  a  time  in 
his  literary  life,  when  he  was  compelled  to  fast  through  pov- 
erty, passing  two  days  at  a  time  without  any  solid  food. 

Boswell  once  said  to  him,  as  an  instance  of  the  stran"-e 
opinions  some  persons  would  ascribe  to  him,  "  David  Hume 
told  me,  you  said  that  you  would  stand  before  a  battery  of 
cannon  to  restore  the  Convocation  to  its  full  powers."  With 
a  determined  look,  he  thundered  forth,  "And  would  I  not,  sir? 
Shall  the  Presbyterian  Iclrh  of  Scotland  have  its  General 
Assembly,  and  the  Church  of  England  be  denied  its  Convo- 
cation ?"  Boswell  calls  this,  but  why  we  may  hardly  discern, 
an  explosion  of  high-church  zeal  :  at  all  events,  at  the  present 
time  what  may  be  designated  the  low-church  party  would 
probably  prevail  in  Convocation. 

The  Church  of  Scotland  certainly  has  its  General  Assem- 
bly :  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  because  separated 
from  the  state,  necessarily  has  its  Convention  :  the  Wes- 
leyans  in  England  hold  their  Conference,  and  on  most  absolute 
terms  :  other  bodies  of  dissenters  are  governed  by  something 
analogous — but  still  (and  be  it  spoken  with  all  deference  to 
an  opposite  opinion  of  others),  it  is  not  advisable  that  the 
Church  of  England,  and  mainly  on  account  of  her  power, 
should  be  allowed  to  revive  her  Convocation.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  bishops,  in  mixing  with  the  laity  in  the 
Upper  House  of  Parliament,  are  following  the  more  ancient 
system,  when  in  the  Grand  Council  of  the  nation,  the  Witena- 
gemote,  met  earls  and  thanes,  bishops  and  mitred  abbots  :  and 
that  at  a  much  later  period  divines  sat  in  a  separate  house, 
and  thus  commenced  Convocation.  It  was  in  the  year  1725 
that  Convocation  was  discontinued,  at  a  time  when  much  ve- 
nality, corruption,  avarice,  and  profligacy  marked  the  times; 
and  hence  it  was  disagreeable  to  the  government  that  the 
morals  of  the  people  should  be  inspected,  and  decency  and 
dignity  in  the  church  too  rigidly  maintained.  Their  disputes 
in  controversial  and  other  matters  were  assigned  as  the  cause 


116  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

of  this  authoritative  measure:  and  if  so,  it  were  well;  for 
we  can  hardly  agree  with  the  historian, =^  that  "nothing  can 
be  more  impolitic  in  a  state  than  to  hinder  the  clergy  from 
disputing  with  each  other;"  and  that,  "if  religion  be  not 
kept  awake  by  opposition,  it  sinks  into  silence,  and  no  longer 
continues  an  object  of  public  concern."  On  the  contrary, 
much  infidelity,  and  much  immorality,  are  the  consequence 
of  the  miserable  divisions  and  disputes  in  the  religious  com- 
munity ;  and  religion  is  most  at  its  height,  most  attractive 
and  most  powerful,  in  proportion  as  peace  and  love  bear  sway 
in  public  assemblies,  and  in  the  private  conduct  of  individuals. 
It  was  so  in  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  church,  when 
no  secession  from  the  one  and  entire  body  of  Christians  was 
known:  and  when  the  heathen  world  exclaimed,  "See  how 
these  Christians  loA^e  one  another  1"  We  must  recollect  that 
Convocation  now  would  be  a  different  matter  to  what  it  has 
hitherto  been,  inasmuch  as  multitudes  of  persons  can  read 
who  before  could  not ;  the  means  of  conveying  intelligence 
are  multiplied ;  and  thus  a  whole  nation  would  be  standing 
on  tiptoe  to  learn  every  word  spoken  in  the  Houses,  where 
before  but  a  portion  of  it  could  know  any  thing  about  it. 
Of  course,  newspapers  would  be  established  for  the  purpose 
of  making  every  speech  and  matter  public,  and  probably  the 
debates  in  Convocation  would  exceed  in  interest  the  debates 
in  Parliament :  while  a  love  of  taking  one  side  or  another  in 
exciting  controversial  topics  would  rather  tend  to  place  in  the 
background  the  humble  practice  of  true  religion.  We  may 
be  sure  such  a  stir  would  arise  in  the  church  as  would  add 
greatly  to  her  convenience  or  inconvenience :  most  probably 
to  the  latter,  and,  therefore,  it  may  be  best  to  continue  the 
church  under  the  guidance  of  the  state,  that  is,  in  the  power 
of  the  laity  as  elected  by  tke  people.  Still,  it  is  a  very  grave 
question,  whether  dissenting  members  of  Parliament  should 
(or  could  conscientiously)  vote  on  matters  affecting  the  church, 
because  the  church  should  be  governed  by  churchmen :  and, 
at  all  events,  the  state  should  forbear  to  act  in  a  tyrannical 
and  overbearing  spirit  toward  the  church,  so  long  as  she  con- 
Bents  to  place  her  affairs  so  much  under  its  rules,  and  declines 
*  Goldsmith,  vol.  iv.  p.  26.3. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  117 

the  voice  of  a  separate  assembly  to  express  or  conduct  the 
administration  of  her  aflairs,  she  seems  by  so  doing  to  seek 
peace  in  preference  to  power. 

But,  say  many,  We  want  discipUne  in  the  church.  Well, 
the  state  has  given  you  much  discipline,  especially  of  late, 
through  Acts  of  Parliament;  and  recollect  that  laity  and 
clergy  combined  are  the  church.  Yes,  but  still,  they  say,  the 
church  wants  the  power  of  excommunication  left  her  by  her 
Lord  (John  xx.  22,  23),  and  exercised  by  Apostles  and  the 
Primitive  Church ;  for  since  the  church  is  really  a  society, 
and  yet  has  none  of  that  outward  coercive  power  wherewith 
the  civil  magistrate  enforces  his  laws,  it  is  fit  she  should  have 
something  in  lieu  of  it,  whereby  her  members  might  either 
be  kept  to  rule,  or  else  be  disoivned  by  her,  and  excluded  from 
all  further  correspondence  or  communion  with  her.  lleason 
alone  will  suggest,  that  the  church,  as  a  society  instituted  by 
Christ,  should  have  the  powers  necessary  to  her  support  and 
government;  that  she  should  have  somewhat  wherewith  to 
keep  her  members  within  the  rules  and  orders  of  her  Founder. 
For  it  were  absurd  to  suppose  of  so  wise  a  Founder,  that  He 
should  have  left  her  in  such  a  naked  and  destitute  condition 
as  to  have  no  rules  of  government,  no  bands  of  union  between 
her  members,  no  common  ligaments  wherewith  to  keep  the 
body  compact,  and  to  preserve  it  in  health  and  vigor. ^'^  Be- 
yond all  dispute  the  church  has  scriptural  authority  for  the 
enforcement  of  discipline ;  it  is  a  legacy  left  to  the  church  by 
Christ  himself.f  And  noble  is  St.  Cyprian's  praise  of  the 
exercise  of  discipline,  when  he  ascribes  to  it  the  "  preservation 
of  our  faith  and  hope :  our  guidance  to  heaven :  the  increase 
of  all  good  dispositions  in  us :  the  support  of  all  virtue :  our 
abiding  in  God  and  Christ,  and  our  partaking  at  last  of  their 
blessed  promises."  Well  might  he  add,  that  "to  adhere  to 
it  was  beneficial :  and  to  despise,  or  neglect  it,  fatal." 

No  one  can  deny  that  the  bishops  of  our  church  are  en- 
abled to  exercise  much  authoritative  discipline  in  gross  cases 
of  wrong  teaching  or  example,  and  in  relation  to  moral  con- 

*  Marshall  on  the  Penitential  Discipline  of  the  Church, 
t   See  Bishop  Jewell's  Apology  of  the  Church  of  England,  on  the 
incanh'.g  of  "  binding"'  and  '"  lnosiniZ;''  P-  23-27 


118  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

duct,  ill  the  case  of  the  clergy.  But  the  popular  cry  is,  that 
persons  of  the  laity  call  themselves  members  of  the  church, 
and  are  even  communicants,  and  yet  of  unholy  lives.  Well, 
the  rubric  provides  for  such  cases  as  this  latter,  although  we 
certainly  want  a  correct  definition  given  of  the  persons  to 
whom  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  to  be  refused. 
The  revival  of  such  discipline  is  "  too  weighty  for  the  shoul- 
ders of  any  private  priest,"  and,  moreover,  he  might  be  charg- 
ed with  pique  or  personal  dislike.  At  present,  it  is  rather 
the  custom  of  the  clergy,  when  they  see  any  reprobate  persons 
intending  to  partake  of  the  Sacrament,  to  send  them  a  private 
note,  or  confidential  message,  and  thus  kindly  warn  them. 
Yet  a  great  object  of  all  discipline  is  missed  by  this  private 
proceeding.  Happy  is  it  when  a  man's  conscience  can  de- 
cide the  matter  for  him,  as  Clemens  Aiexandrinus  rather 
advises  that  the  people  should  be  left  to  it  in  this  momentous 
concern:  "Some,"  he  says,  in  commendation  rather  of  the 
practice,  "  after  the  customary  division  of  the  Eucharistical 
elements,  leave  it  upon  the  conscience  of  their  people  whether 
they  will  take  their  part  or  not.  And  the  best  rule  to  de- 
termine them,  in  their  participation  or  forbearance,"  he  ob- 
serves to  be  "  their  own  conscience;  as  the  surest  foundation 
for  conscience  to  proceed  upon  in  this  matter  was  a  good  life, 
joined  with  a  suitable  measure  of  proficiency  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  Gospel."^  But  the  boldly  speaking  St.  Chrysostom, 
a  kind  of  Latimer  in  such  respects,  tells  the  clergy,  that  '•  it 
is  no  small  penalty  which  they  shall  incur,  if  they  suiTer  any 
to  partake  of  the  Holy  Table,  whom  they  know  to  be  guilty 
of  deadly  sin  ;  and  that  the  blood  of  sucli  shall  be  required 
at  their  hands  ;  that  therefore,  if  any  general  of  an  army, 
or  a  consid,  or  even  the  emperor  Idmsclf  should  offer  to  ap- 
proach  under  such  circumstances,  they  were  boldly  to  oppose 
his  admission,  as  being  vested  for  such  purposes  tvith  a 
power  superior  to  any  earthly  potentate  s.""^  After  all, 
public  opinion  must  be  prepared  to  second  the  enforcement  of 
discipline,  or  it  would  much  lose  its  eflect  :   and  dissenters, 

^  Clem.  Alexand.  Strom.at.  lib.  i.  vol.  i.  p.  318. 
t  Chrysostom  in  Matt.  xxvi.     Homily.   Xo.   83,   vol.  vii.  p.   789. 
Ed.  Beaed. 


DR.  JOHNSOiN'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  119 

who  would  too  readily  take  into  their  communion  the  ban- 
ished ones  from  the  church,  should  not  be  forward  to  cry  out 
for  that  which  they  really  in  great  measure  prevent.  "  The 
absence  of  discipline,"  writes  Dr.  Arnold,  "  is  a  most  grievous 
evil ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  although  it  must  be  vain 
ivhen  opposed  to  jniblic  opinion^  yet,  when  it  is  the  expres- 
sion of  that  opinion,  there  is  nothing  which  it  can  not  achieve. 
But,"  he  adds,  "  public  opinion  can  not  enforce  church  disci- 
pline now,  because  that  discipline  would  not  be  now  the 
expression  of  the  voice  of  the  church,  but  simply  of  a  small 
part  of  the  church,  of  the  clergy  only."*  The  church  is 
probably  aware  of  the  necessity  of  having  public  opinion  with 
her,  and  not  being  able  yet  to  obtain  it  on  this  point  ;  for  she 
still  lays  herself  open  to  the  old  taunt  of  much  wishing  a 
certain  species  of  discipline  f  to  be  restored,  and  yet  of  mak- 
ing no  endeavor  to  obtain  it. 

"Is  not  the  expression  in  the  Burial  Service,"  asked  Bos- 
well,  "  in  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  (blessed)  resurrec- 
tion, too  strong  to  be  used  indiscriminately,  and  indeed,  some- 
times, when  those  over  whose  bodies  it  is  said  have  been 
notoriously  profane  ?"  Johnson  replied,  "It  is  sure  and 
certain  hope,  sir,  not  belief. ''  "I  did  not,"  adds  Boswell, 
"  insist  further  ;  but  can  not  help  thinking  that  less  positive 
words  would  be  more  proper." 

It  must  be  observed  that  Boswell  has  interpolated  the 
word  "  blessed,"  and  also  omitted  the  article,  the  resurrec- 
tion ;  an  alteration  since  the  time  of  King  Edward  the  Sixth's 
first  Prayer  Book,  and  certainly  one  of  importance.  The 
expression  afterward,  ''our  vile  bodies,"  also  takes  away  the 
individual  application.  Still,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of 
commentators,  and  what  Boswell  calls  a  "  satisfactory"  one 
by  the  Rev.  Ralph  Churton,  whose  interpretation  of  the 
words  "eternal  life"  is  ?^rtsatisfactory,  the  intention  of  the 
church  seems  to  be,  in  the  first  place,  to  render  the  words 
applicable  to  the  identical  deceased  whose  corpse  is  being 
interred,  although,  on  a  little  after  reflection,  she  just  renders 
the  form  sufficiently  doubtful,  so  as  to  avoid  individual  appli- 

*  Christian  Life,  Sermon  38. 
t   See  Commination  Service. 


120  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

cation  in  a  perfectly  unwarrantable  case.  Johnson  quotes 
the  lines  found  in  "Camden's  Remains,"  upon  a  very  wicked 
man,  who  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  in  which  he  is 
supposed  to  say, 

"  Between  the  stirrup  and  the  ground, 
I  mercy  ask'd,  I  mercy  found ;" 

but,  alas  !  how  many  die  in  a  senseless  state  of  drunkenness  ; 
others  too  have  no  opportunity  of  seeking  mercy,  but  die  in 
the  midst  of  a  full  career  of  sin. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  the  most  objectionable  words  are,  "our 
dear  brother."  There  is  something  not  only  insincere,  but 
profane,  in  the  use  of  these  words  on  such  an  occasion. 
They  are  words  we  should  not  use  to  the  gross  sinner,  or  the 
malicious  schismatic,  in  his  lifetime.  We  bury  many  who 
are  strangers,  but  who,  if  we  had  known  them,  we  should 
have  so  addressed  ;  and  officially,  as  members  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith,  we  can  truly  designate  each  as  "dear  brother." 
The  simple  term  "brother,"  as  used  in  the  American  Service, 
would  be  hardly  objectionable,  and,  in  a  natural  sense,  quite 
proper.  I  remember  once,  a  very  conscientious  clergyman 
saying  that  he  did  not  think  it  right  that  the  bodies  of 
deceased  dissenters  (if  utter  separatists  and  railers)  should 
be  carried  into  the  church,  but  that  he  should  use  the  dis- 
cretion given  him  by  the  rubric,  and  read  the  appointed 
service  in  the  church-yard.  But  another  clergyman  observed, 
"  Surely,  if  you  are  compelled  to  call  the  deceased  'our  dear 
brother,'  you  need  not  strain  at  the  gnat  when  swallowing 
the  camel."  Besides,  such  a  course  would  be  a  useless 
indignity,  supposed  to  be  shown  toward  the  deceased,  and 
not  taken  as  a  caution  or  warning  to  duircJimen,  in  which 
sense  the  above  worthy  clergyman  intended  it,  and  therefore 
it  would  be  unwise  and  unchristian  to  offer  such  an  ofiense, 
as  it  would  be  represented,  to  our  difiering  brethren.  Over 
mb.ny  a  dissenter  heartily  could  the  minister  of  the  Church 
of  England  say,  "our  dear  brother,"*  but  this  is  beside  the 

*  At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  said,  that  it  would  be  well  if  dis- 
senters, <Tenerally,  would  bury  their  own  dead.  If  they  will  come  to 
the  church  m  death,  after  reviling  licr  in  life,  they  can  hardly  expect 


DR.  JOHNSOiN'S  OHURCHMANSHll\  121 

question  ;  it  is  in  the  cases  of  the  grossly  immoral,  impeni- 
tent, almost  wholly  unbelieving,  and  of  the  bitter  sectarian, 
that  the  conscience  of  the  clergyman  is  wounded,  and  hence 
seeks  relief 

The  church  may  be  said  to  pass  no  sentence  respecting 
the  state  of  the  departed,  and  this  is  right  (Rom.  xiv.  4  ; 
Matt,  vii,  1);  she  speaks  and  hopes  the  best,  which  is  char- 
itable (1  Cor.  xiii.  5—7.).  Still,  in  certain  cases  her  words 
might  be  better  if  not  of  so  strong  a  nature  :  though,  if  dis- 
cipline were  restored,  they  would  be  unexceptionable.  It  is 
a  grand,  and  affecting,  and  most  comforting  service,  when 
used  as  the  church  at  first  provided  :  and  our  ••  hearty  thanks" 
may  be  truly  offered  up,  though  in  heavy  sorrow,  over  the 
corpse  of  a  beloved  friend,  for,  to  die  is  gain. 

'•Oh  what  a  difference,"  said  Wesley,  "is  there  between 
the  English  and  Scotch  mode  of  burial !  The  English  does 
honor  to  human  nature,  and  even  to  the  poor  remains  that 
were  once  a  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  but  when  I  see  in 
Scotland  a  coffin  put  into  the  earth,  and  covered  up  without 
a  word  spoken,  it  reminds  me  of  what  was  spoken  concerning 
Jehoiakim,  He  shall  be  buried  ivith  the  burial  of  an  ass." 
Southey,  in  his  kind  and  masterly  way  observes, "^  "  It  was 
indeed  no  proof  of  judgment,  or  of  feeling,  to  reject  the  finest 
and  most  afiecting  ritual  that  ever  was  composed — a  service 
that  finds  its  icay  to  the  heart,  ivhen  the  heart  stands  most 
in  need  of  such  consolation,  and  is  open  to  receive  itT 


to  be  treated  on  equal  terms  with  consistent  churchmen.  It  is  sin- 
gular that  dissenters,  knov>ung  the  nature  of  the  funeral  service  of  the 
church,  and  that  it  is  adapted  (strictly  speaking)  to  her  beloved  sons 
only,  should  endeavor  to  force  the  consciences  of  her  ministers,  them- 
selves not  despising  the  claims  of  conscience.  Still,  let  nothing  savor- 
ing of  indignity  be  offered ;  and  if  they  will  persist  in  seeking  burial  at 
the  hands  of  the  church,  let  the  church  meet  them  in  a  forgetting  and 
forgiving  spirit.  They  are  brethren. 
*  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  page  248. 

F 


CHAPTER  X. 

HIS    CHURGHMANSHIP. 

Dr.  Johnson  defended  the  practice  of  requiring  subscrip- 
tion to  the  thirty-nine  Articles  in  those  admitted  to  the  uni- 
versities, thus  :  «*  As  all  who  come  into  the  country  must 
obey  the  king,  so  all  who  come  into  an  university  must  be 
of  the  church."  May  we  not  say,  that  much  will  depend 
upon  the  nature  of  the  statutes  of  the  university  into  which 
entrance  is  sought,  together  with  the  power  of  repealing  or 
non-repealing  such  statutes  ?  just  as  the  law  of  the  land  is 
subject  to  revocation  and  addition  :  in  other  words,  it  may 
be  necessary  to  obey  the  existing  statutes,  but  are  those  liable 
to  alteration  ?  On  another  occasion  he  alluded  to  the  alleged 
wrongness  of  making  boys  subscribe  to  articles  they  do  not 
understand,  and  said,  "  The  meaning  of  subscribing  is,  not 
that  they  fully  understand  all  the  articles,  but  that  they  will 
adhere  to  the  Church  of  England."  He  had  before  asserted 
that  the  universities  were  founded  to  bring  up  members  for 
the  Church  of  England  i^qutxi'e,  some  Romish  endowments  ?), 
and  he  went  on  to  maintain,  that  if  mere  subscription  of  ad- 
herence to  the  Church  of  England  were  adopted,  lads  would 
still  be  puzzled  to  know  what  was  meant  by  the  term  "  Church 
of  England,"  and  wherein  it  differed  from  the  Presbyterian, 
Romish,  Greek,  and  Coptic  churches.  "  But  Avould  it  not 
be  sufficient,"  asked  Boswell,  "  to  subscribe  the  Bible  ?" 
"Why,  no,  sir,"  returned  Johnson,  "for  all  sects  will  sub- 
-'scribe  the  Bible  :  nay,  the  Mohammedans  will  subscribe  the 
Bible :  for  the  Mohammedans  acknowledge  Jesus  Christ,  as 
well  as  Moses,  but  maintain,  that  God  sent  Mohammed  as 
a  still  greater  prophet  than  either." 

It  is  at  once  seen,  that  if  the  universities  are  to  educate 
for  the  Church  of  England  only,  subscription  to  the  Bible 
merely  would   not   be  sufficient  to  keep  them  exclusive,  for 


DU.  JOHNSON'S  CHURGHMANSHir.  123 

Roman  Catholics,  Socinians,  Quakers,  and  all  sects  (with 
little  modern  exception),  would  readily  do  so,  and  at  once 
enter  the  universities  :  and  thus  we  should,  as  Johnson  ex- 
pressed it,  "supply  our  enemies  with  arms  from  our  arsenal." 
The  question  is,  whether  it  should  continue  to  be  "  our 
arsenal"  only,  which  forms  a  large  subject,  requiring  for  its 
solution  much  legal  knowledge  and  decision.  It  was  the  de- 
bate on  the  petition  of  Archdeacon  Blackburn,  in  favor  of  doing 
away  with  subscription,  in  the  year  1792  (which  was  lost  by  a 
division  of  2 1 7  to  7 1 ),  which  called  forth  Johnson's  observations. 

At  another  time,  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  predes- 
tination, Boswell  asked,  "Is  it  necessary,  sir,  to  believe  all 
the  thirty-nine  Articles  ?"  "  Why,  sir,"  replied  Johnson, 
"that  is  a  question  that  has  been  much  agitated.  Some 
have  thought  it  necessary  that  they  should  all  be  believed  : 
others  have  considered  them  to  be  only  articles  of  peace,  that 
is  to  say,  you  are  not  to  preach  against  them." 

The  reasoning  of  Archdeacon  Paley  on  subscription  to  ar- 
ticles of  religion  will  occur  to  the  reader's  mind,  and  will 
serve  to  emancipate  the  over-scrupulous  person.  It  is  well 
that  subscription  should  be  required  only  to  such  articles  as 
are  of  almost  universal  agreement. 

Dr.  Johnson  approved  of  bishops  having  seats  in  the  House 
of  Lords  ;  "  Who  is  more  proper,"  he  asked,  "  for  having  the 
dignity  of  a  peer,  than  a  bishop,  provided  a  bishop  be  what 
he  ought  to  be  ?"  But  this  is  hardly  the  right  way  of  put- 
ting a  question  which  is  one  of  the  highest  importance  to  the 
church.  Doubtless,  bishops  make  good  peers,  and  so  would 
clergymen,  with  Johnson's  qualification,  make  good  baronets. 
But  does  the  peer  improve  the  bishop,  or  do  the  duties  of  a 
peer  in  Parliament  interfere  with  the  diocesan  labors  of  a 
bishop  ?  It  is  said,  that  the  church  requires  the  advocacy 
of  bishops  in  Parliament,  and  that  no  other  persons  can  un- 
derstand so  well  the  wants  of  the  church.  But  is  this  true  ? 
and  will  not  support  of  the  church  come  with  better  grace, 
and  greater  power,  from  the  tongues  of  laymen,  and  can  not 
lay  churchmen  be  equally  schooled  in  all  the  wishes  of  the 
church  ?  Indeed,  bishops  differ  so  much,  and  vote  so  directly 
in  opposition  to  one  another  on  many  matters  which  involve 


124  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

the  interests  of  the  church,  that  the  church  herself  is  be- 
wildered in  attempting  to  distinguish  between  friends  and 
foes  on  the  episcopal  bench  :  and  after  all,  the  main  assist- 
ance to  the  church  must  be  derived  from  the  lay  peers,  who 
form  the  very  great  majority  of  the  House.  In  the  House  of 
Commons,  where  she  needs  most  help,  the  church  is  left  in 
the  hands  of  her  lay  friends,  and  we  hear  no  complaints  from 
the  great  body  of  the  clergy  of  her  interests  being  inadequately 
represented  and  pleaded  in  the  face  of  many  harsh  opponents. 
The  same  arguments  that  serve  to  retain  bishops  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  ought  to  be  urged  for  the  election  of  members  of  the 
inferior  clergy  into  the  House  of  Commons. 

Bishops  also  are  expected  to  speak  and  vote  on  general 
questions  of  politics,  and  this  tends  to  give  the  church  a  polit- 
ical complexion.  Not  only  must  much  time  be  consumed  by 
them  (if  they  be  conscientious  men)  in  acquainting  them- 
selves with  the  great  subjects  debated,  and  in  making  them- 
selves masters  of  Acts  of  Parliament,  but  also  their  speeches 
and  votes  are  freely  and  unceremoniously  canvassed  in  the 
lower  as  well  as  higher  species  of  newspapers  ;  and  when 
we  know  the  license  given  to  political  discussion  and  vitu- 
peration,  it  is  not  pleasing  to  see  good  and  pious  men, 
whom  we  ought  always  to  behold  with  reverence,  exposed  to 
the  mere  wanton  attacks  of  newspaper  scribblers  ;  neither, 
on  the  other  hand,  do  w^e  like  to  see  vast  praise  lavished  on 
a  man  for  the  display  of  abilities  that  would  have  been  more 
appropriately  exercised  on  his  religious  vocation.  I  remem- 
ber once  hearing  some  London  lawyers  of  great  eminence, 
who  had  been  engaged  in  conducting  a  bill  through  the 
House  of  Lords,  a  bill  which  to  a  great  extent  served  the 
cause  of  humanity,  speak  very  highly  of  the  arduous  and 
availing  labors  of  a  certain  excellent  bishop,  who  was  always 
at  his  post,  and  aided  the  cause  greatly  by  his  unwearied  ap- 
plication and  superior  abilities  ;  but,  after  all,  the  matter 
would  have  been  better  (not  done  better)  in  the  hands  of  a 
lay  peer,  when  we  consider  that  the  bishop  was  compelled  to 
be  absent  from  his  diocese,  and  to  attend  for  awhile  to  his 
spiritual  functions  with  secondary  zeal.  It  is  quite  true,  that 
more  bishops  are  needed  in  the  church,  proportionate  to  the 


DK.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP  125 

increase  of  population ;  for  the  number  of  bishops  at  present 
existent,  bears  no  comparison  with  the  numbers  in  primitive 
ages,  and  even  immediately  on  the  Reformation  :  but  may- 
it  not  be  considered,  that  if  bishops  were  removed  from  the 
House  of  Lords,  each  man  might  perform  double  or  treble 
the  supervision  that  he  now  is  enabled  to  exercise  ;  though 
dioceses,  as  at  present  constituted,  are  very  far  too  extended 
and  populous  for  the  oversight  of  one  man,  even  were  his 
time  entirely  confined  to  that  work.  Numbers  of  the  clergy 
actually  only  set  eyes  on  their  own  bishop  once  in  three 
years,  and  then  only  set  eyes  on  him  ;  while  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  Christian  people  live  long  lives,  and,  excepting, 
it  may  be,  at  the  period  of  Confirmation,  go  down  to  the 
grave  without  once  beholding  the  father  of  the  diocese  in 
which  they  reside,  God  forbid,  that  ever  a  popular  revolu- 
tion should  hurl  the  bishops  from  the  House  of  Lords,  for 
with  such  an  act  the  House  of  Lords  itself  would  probably 
fall ;  but  would  that  the  bishops  themselves  would  demand, 
in  the  beautiful  and  forcible  words  of  the  eloquent  Bishop  of 
Oxford,  as  applied  to  other  secular  matters,  "  entire  exemp- 
tion from  the  secular  labors  of  a  peer  of  Parliament,  with  all 
its  usually  accompanying  secular  life."  The  episcopal  office 
is  one,  the  possessor  of  which,  from  the  nature  of  its  respons- 
ibility and  sanctity,  must  be  either  venerable  or  contemptible ; 
and  it  is  Avith  this  view  strongly  in  his  mind,  that  the  present 
writer  would  desire  to  see  the  episcopal  office  rescued  from 
every  intense  occupation  of  secular  interest,  and  from  every 
stain  of  wordliness,  so  that  the  former  epithet  might  ever  be 
fully  merited,  and  lastingly  maintained. 

There  is  a  long  standing,  constitutional  question  connected 
with  this  matter,  which  should  be  seriously  weighed,  and 
considered  in  all  its  bearings  ;  but  it  may  be  very  probable 
that  the  religious  advantages  would  be  discerned  to  be  ad- 
vanced by  the  separation  of  the  political  and  spiritual  privi- 
leges of  the  episcopate;  and  who  then  would  rejoice  more  in 
being  set  free  than  the  bishops  themselves?  How  valuable 
would  have  been  Dr.  Johnson's  deliberate  sentiments,  drawn 
out  in  full  logical  array,  upon  many  of  these  important  sub- 
jects !      But,  as  Boswell  remarks,  "  Though  in  his  writings, 


126  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

and  upon  all  occasions,  a  great  friend  to  the  constitution,  both 
in  church  and  state,  he  has  never  written  expressly  in  sup- 
port of  either." 

The  inequality  of  the  livings  of  the  English  clergy,  and 
the  scanty  payment  of  curates,  was  spoken  of  when  Johnson 
observed,  "  Why,  yes,  sir  ;  but  it  can  not  be  helped.  You 
must  consider,  that  the  revenues  of  the  clergy  are  not  at  the 
disposal  of  the  state,  like  the  pay  of  an  army.  Different 
men  have  founded  different  churches :  and  some  are  better 
endowed,  and  some  worse.  The  state  can  not  interfere  and 
make  an  equal  division  of  what  has  been  particularly  appro- 
priated. Now,  when  a  clergyman  has  but  a  small  living, 
or  even  two  small  livings,  he  can  afford  very  little  to  the 
curate."  At  another  time  Boswell  alluded  to  the  very  sm.all 
salaries  of  some  of  the  clergy,  when  Johnson  remarked,  "  To 
be  sure,  sir,  it  is  wrong  that  any  clergyman  should  be  with- 
out a  reasonable  income  ;  but,  as  the  church  revenues  were 
sadly  diminished  at  the  Reformation,  the  clergy  who  have 
livings  can  not  afford,  in  many  instances,  to  give  good  salaries 
to  curates,  without  leaving  themselves  too  little." 

It  is  not  curates  only,  it  is  the  small  incumbents  of  the 
Church  of  England  who  are  her  poorest  ministers  :*  they  have 
more  difficulity  in  obtaining  payment  of  their  scanty  incomes, 
and  have  to  pay  poor   rates,   road  rates,   taxes,   and  other 

*  The  following  is  a  portion  of  a  petition  drawn  up  by  several  of 
the  clergy,  at  the  close  of  the  year  1848  : 

'•  Many  of  the  most  diligent  and  devoted  ministers  of  the  church, 
through  anxiety  for  the  support  and  comfort  of  their  families,  without 
any  provision  for  themselves  in  old  age  or  declining  health,  or  any 
prospect  of  leaving  to  their  families  even  a  supply  of  the  common  neces- 
saries and  comforts  of  life,  in  case  of  their  removal,  have  had  their 
minds  materially  unfitted  for  the  comfortable  discharge  of  their  duties, 
have  been  unable  to  meet  the  demands  which  the  various  societies, 
whether  charitable  or  religious,  of  the  present  day  have  upon  them, 
have  been  therefore  discouraged  in  promoting  such  societies,  and  have 
found  it  difficult  to  maintain  that  influence,  and  authority,  and  independ- 
ence of  spirit,  which  is  so  necessary  for  a  public  and  authorized  teacher 
of  our  holy  religion. 

"  We  feel  also  that  the  inadequate  support  provided  for  so  large  a 
number  of  the  ministers  of  Voluntary  Churches  has  greatly  tended 
to  increase  the  evil." 


Dli.  JOHNSON'S  CHURGHMANSHir.  127 

charges,  besides  usually  to  keep  a  house  and  premises  in 
sound  repair.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  spoliation 
of  church  property  by  Henry  the  Eighth  was  far  too  extend- 
ed :  and  many  lords  and  gentlemen  are  now  in  possession  of 
incomes  that  ought  to  be  expended  in  the  service  of  religion, 
and  are  greatly  needed  for  that  purpose  in  many  parts  of  the 
country.  It  has  been  quaintly  remarked,  that  Henry  the 
Eighth  amended  what  was  amiss  even  as  the  devil  amended 
his  dame's  leg  (as  it  is  in  the  proverb),  when  he  should  have 
set  it  right,  he  brake  it  quite  in  pieces.  And  the  poor  as 
well  as  the  clergy  have  been  sufferers  ;  for,  notes  the  histo- 
rian, where  X20  was  given  to  the  poor  yearly,  in  more  than 
a  hundred  places  in  England,  is  not  one  meal's  meat  given. 
Reform  or  remodeling,  according  to  the  primitive  institution, 
"  would  not  have  satisfied  the  ends  of  himself  (H.envy  VIII.), 
and  his  covetous  and  ambitious  agents.  They  all  aimed  at 
the  revenues  and  7'iches  of  the  religious  houses.  For  which 
reason  no  arts  and  contrivances  were  to  be  passed  by  that 
might  be  of  use  in  obtaining  those  ends.  The  most  abomin- 
able crimes  were  to  be  charged  on  the  religious,  and  the  charge 
was  to  be  managed  with  the  utmost  industry,  boldness,  and 
dexterity.  This  was  a  powerful  argument  to  draw  an  odium 
upon  them,  and  to  make  them  disrespected  and  ridiculed  by 
the  generality  of  mankind.  And  yet,  after  all,  the  proofs 
were  so  insufficient,  that  from  what  I  have  been  able  to 
gather"  (records  the  Protestant  writer),*  "I  have  not  found 
any  direct  one  against  even  any  single  monastery.  When 
all  accusations  failed,  ejection  by  force  was  resorted  to,  and  thus 
by  degrees  the  religious  houses,  and  the  estates  belonging  to 
them,  having  yielded  to  the  king,  he  either  sold  or  gave  them 
to  the  lay  nobility  and  gentry,  contrary  to  lohat  he  had  at 
first  pretended.''^     Even  Bishop   Latimer   petitioned  that 

*  See  preface  to  Dugdale's  Monasticon. 

t  See  Coke's  Instit.  part  iv.  p.  44.  The  project  was,  that  "If  the 
Farliaraent  would  give  unto  him  (Henry  the  Eighth)  all  the  abbeys, 
priories,  friaries,  nunneries,  and  other  monasteries,  that  forever  in  time 
then  to  come  he  would  take  order,  that  the  same  should  not  be  converted 
to  private  use.,  but  set  apart  for  public  services,  among  others,  the 
maintenance  of  40,000  soldiers,  the  creation  of  a  number  of  nobles,  &c. 
The  soid  monasteries  wore   given   to  the   king  by  authority  of  divers 


128  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHUHCHMANSHIP. 

some  of  these  ancient  houses  might  be  preserved.^  It  is 
gratifying  to  observe  the  efforts  which  are  being  made  in  the 
present  day  to  recover  the  aHenated  property  of  the  church 
by  the  Tithe  Redemption  Association,  at  the  head  of  which 
are  those  two  excellent  noblemen,  of  different  political  senti- 
ments. Lord  Robert  Grosvenor  and  Lord  John  Manners. t 

In  regard  to  the  abstract  question  of  endowments  for  relig- 
ious purposes,  there  seems  to  be  no  objection.  All  sects  and 
classes  of  dissenters  accept  them,  and  some  are  in  possession, 
of  endowments  of  no  mean  value.  Endowment,  when 
adequate  to  the  support  of  the  minister,  may  be  called 
freedom  from  all  payment :  and  only  an  endowed  church 
can  say  that  she  preaches  the  Gospel  without  money  and 
without  price  to  the  people.  Farmers  that  pay  tithe  or 
rent-charge,  in  so  doing  pay  nothing  of  their  own  to  the 
church.  The  matter  may  be  familiarly  explained  in  this 
way.  Suppose  a  Christian,  some  fifty  years  ago,  ordered 
in  his  will  that  a  certain  sum  should  be  paid  out  of  the 
rents  of  his  landed  estate  to  a  county  hospital ;  and  suppose 
that  the  landlord  of  those  estates  desired  the  tenants  (instead 
of  bringing  that  bequeathed  sum  to  him  for  his  own  use)  to 
hand  it  over  to  the  treasurer  of  the  hospital,  according  to  the 
wishes  of  the  donor.  Such  tenants  would  be  rogues  if  they 
did  not  faithfully  pay  the  money  :  but  still  they  could  never 
say  that  they  were  paying  it  out  of  their  own  pockets.      It 

Acts  of  Parliament :  but  no  provision  was  therein  made  for  the  said  pro- 
ject^ or  any  part  thereof :  the  king  took  all  to  himself."'  See  Calvin's 
Institutes,  lib.  iv.  c.  13.     Dugdale,  vol.  ii.  p.  121. 

*  "After  the  visitation  of  the  religious  houses  by  commissioners 
from  the  king,  divers  of  the  visitors  did  petition  the  king  that  some  of 
the  houses,  both  for  the  virtue  of  the  persons  in  them,  and  the  benefit 
of  the  country  (the  poor  receiving  thence  great  relief,  and  the  richer 
sort  good  education  for  their  children),  might  be  retained.  Bishop 
Latimer  also  moved,  that  two  or  three  might  be  left  in  every  shire  for 
pious  uses ;  but  Cromvrell,  by  the  king's  permission,  invaded  all,  while 
between  threats,  gifts,  persuasions,  promises,  and  whatsoever  might 
make  a  man  obnoxious,  he  obtained  of  the  abbots,  priors,  abbesses,  &e., 
that  their  houses  might  be  given  up." — Froin  Lord  Herberfs  History 
of  King  Henry  the  Eighth,  p.  442. 

t  Sir  Henry  Spelman's  History,  of  Sacrilege  &c.,  and  the  singular 
fatality  attendant  on  the  owners  of  Cowdray,  and  of  other  properties, 
will  occur  to  the  reader. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  129 

is  true  that  their  labor  has  earned  the  money  from  the  land 
(as  it  has  earned  their  rent,  for  all  wealth  is  created  by  in- 
dustry) ;  it  is  true  that  it  passes  through  their  hands  ;  but 
this  is  all ;  it  never  was,  and  never  will  be  their  own  : 
therefore  they  can  not  be  said  to  subscribe  to  the  hospital 
out  of  their  own  pockets.  Such  is  tithe  or  rent-charge. 
The  tenant  is  only  intrusted  to  pay  a  sum,  that  never  was 
his  own,  to  the  account  of  the  clergyman  ;  and  from  him 
the  clergyman  receives  no  kind  of  gift  or  reward.  If  the 
tenth  part  of  the  land  itself  were  set  apart  instead  of  the 
tenth  of  its  produce,  could  the  occupiers  of  the  remainder 
complain  they  paid  out  of  their  own  pockets  ?  But  the  case 
is  the  same. 

What  an  expense  would  be  brought  on  the  religious  com- 
munity, if  the  endowments  of  the  church  were  done  away  : 
for  the  voluntary  principle,   of  which  we  hear   so  much,  is 
one  of  pure,  unmitigated,  personal  charge.      If  an  individual 
pays  but  one  shilling  per  week,  or  per  month,  that  shilling 
is  his  own  payment,  the  produce  of  his  own  labor  or  estate. 
It  is  a  principle  to  which  the  church  is  in  some  localities 
compelled  to  resort,  but  happier  is  the   church  that  is  free 
from  such  a  chain.      Paley^  has   well  described    the   evils 
likely  to  accrue  from  an  adoption  of  the  voluntary  principle. 
"  Many,"  he  says,  in  common  with  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  would 
take   advantage  of  the  option  which  was  thus  imprudently 
left  open  to  them,  and  this  liberty  might  finally  operate   to 
the  decay  of  virtue,  and  irrecoverable  forgetfulness  of  all  re- 
ligion in  the  country."      And  even  where  payments  might 
be  willingly  made,  the  evils  of  the  system  are  apparent ;  and 
surely  the   dissenters  have   ample  evidence  of  this.      Why 
should  they    attempt  to  force   a   system  upon  the    country 
which    has    ever   been    a    failure    with    themselves  ?      For, 
alas  I   while  some  few  men   of  popular  talent  are  success- 
ful, numbers  are,  notwithstanding  their  most  urgent  appeals 
to  their  flocks  for  pecuniary  support,   reduced  to  beggary  ; 
or,    rather,    since    their    begging   fails,    to    poverty  ?      G-ood 
men    among    them   deeply   feel    their    dependent    condition. 
"  Men  of   finer    and   more   ethereal    temperament,"    says  a 
*  See  his  chapter  on  Religious  Establishments,  and  Toleration. 


130  Dil.  .lOHiNSOxN'S  CHURCHMANSHIP 

modem  writer,*  "  sink  under  the  indignities  and  privations 
they  endure  in  what  they  conceive  to  be  the  path  of  duty, 
and  die  broken-hearted.  The  real  cause  of  their  untimely 
departure  is  little  understood  by  the  people  with  whom  they 
are  associated.  Sustained  in  their  last  hours  by  faith  in 
their  Redeemer,  their  lamented  fate  is  ascribed  to  their  anx- 
ious zeal  too  rapidly  wearing  out  the  springs  of  life  :  and 
their  names  are  enrolled  in  the  obituary  of  the  sect,  as  a  te?,- 
timoiiy  to  the  goodness  of  that  system  ivhicli  destroyed  them.'' 
The  question  of  endowments  is  quite  a  different  one,  yet 
often  mixed  up  with  that  of  the  separation  of  church  and 
state.  Churches  which  have  no  connection  with  the  state, 
such  as  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  enjoy  their  own 
endowments.  Endowments  are  not  from  the  state,  they 
very  mainly  proceed  from  voluntary  benefactions.  Nothing 
but  a  system  of  might  before  right  could  rob  the  church  of 
her  revenues,  derived,  not  from  the  people's  pockets,  but 
from  the  gifts  of  people  many  centuries  deceased.  The  dis- 
senters think  (if  we  may  judge  by  the  opinions  of  some) 
that  the  church  is  to  run  away,  in  a  destitute  condition, 
from  the  embrace  of  the  too  enamored  state  ;  she  is  not,  as 
of  old,  to  «' spoil  the  Egyptians,"  but  is  to  walk  out  of  the 
grand  state  hotel,  leaving  all  her  bag  and  baggage  behind 
her,  and  start  upon  a  new  railway  pilgrimage,  with  nothing 
to  pay  her  fare  I  But  no  ;  this  robbery  can  never  be  coun- 
tenanced in  moral  and  honest  England  :  if  the  church  is  to 
be  divorced  from  the  state,  let  her,  at  least,  take  her  own 
revenues,  v/ith  her,  giving  unto  Csesar  that  which  is  Caesar's, 
but  retaining  for  God  that  which  is  clearly  and  indisputa- 
bly God's.  And  what  of  her  property  is  not  her  own  ?t  In 
point  of  fact,  the  state  has  no  ecclesiastical  patronage,  for  all 
rights  of  presentation  are  private  property,  of  which  the  state 
or  legislature   merely  guarantees   the   quiet   possession   and 

*  Hull's  Ecclesiastical  Establishments  not  inconsistent  with  Chris- 
tianity.     Hatchard.     Page  74. 

t  On  this  matter,  see  The.  State  in  its  Relations  with  the  Church, 
by  W.  E.  Gladstone,  Esq.  M.  P.,  especially  Chapter  iii.  p.  103,  &c. 
The  property  of  the  church,  he  maintains  was  not  so  much  from  tithes 
as  from  "gifts  of  lands  which  were  notoriously  and  indisputably 
voluntary." 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIl^  131 

free  exercise.  The  crown  possesses  patronage  ;  so  do  cor- 
porations ;  but  neither  of  these  are  the  state.  If  a  church, 
built  and  endowed  by  an  individual  now,  be  deserving  of 
legal  protection,  why  should  not  a  church  built  and  endowed 
by  the  same  voluntary  means  four  hundred  years  ago,  be 
treated  with  the  same  consideration  ?  Length  of  usage 
surely  improves  and  strengthens  a  title.  If  the  church  goes 
forth  from  the  state,  she  must,  on  all  the  grounds  of  law,  of 
justice,  of  equity,  of  common  right,  and  common  sense,  go 
forth  with  what  is  her  own  in  her  hand,  and  on  her  back  : 
at  her  peril,  she  must  not  resign  those  sacred  treasures 
which  have  been  solemnly  delivered  over  to  her  care,  her 
guardianship,  and  her  direction.  For  we  must  bear  in 
mind,  that  no  antagonistic  society  of  Christians,  excepting 
the  Church  of  Rome,  is  laying  claim  to  her  revenues  ;  so 
that  endowments  granted  solely  for  spiritual  purposes,  for  the 
health  of  the  souls  of  the  people,  would  be  utterly  taken 
away  from  religion,  and  expended  on  things  purely  secular. 
There  would  be  no  changing  of  owners,  such  as  took  place 
at  the  Reformation :  although,  since  dissenters  refuse  not  en- 
dowments for  themselves,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  they  could 
consistently  refuse  the  endowments  of  the  Church  of  England, 
if  they  could  get  them. 

The  union  of  church  and  state  is  another  question,  and 
yet  it  is  thought  to  be  bound  up,  some  way  or  other,  with 
the  property  of  the  church.  Strange  that  a  separation  should 
be  sought,  because  it  is  surely  a  sound  principle  that  govern- 
ments are  bound  to  provide  for  the  best  welfare  of  their  peo- 
ple ;  and  indeed  this  is  a  truth  never  questioned  by  statesmen 
or  philosophers  down  to  the  period  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
If  the  state  has  not  power  given  her  to  promote  religion,  how 
can  she  claim  power  for  repressing  vice  and  encouraging  mo- 
rality ?  "We  need  be  little  moved,"  says  Gladstone,  "by 
the  taunts  of  those  who  reproach  us  with  a  '  law  church.' 
It  is  a  law  church  ;  we  rejoice  in  the  fact :  but  how  ?  just 
as,  by  the  sovereign's  proclamation  against  vice,  the  morals 
of  the  nation  are  crown  morals.'''  And,  recollect,  the  law 
is  Christian  law;  and  law  administered,  too,  by  Christian 
men.      Hence  Dr.  Arnold  glories  in  the  union  of  church  and 


io2  DH.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

state.  They  are  one  and  the  same  thmg  in  his  idea.  He 
says,*  "  The  perfect  state  and  the  perfect  church  are  identi- 
cal;"  and  again,  "  The  state  can  not  be  perfect  till  it  possess 
the  wisdom  of  the  church,  nor  the  church  be  perfect  till  it 
possess  the  power  of  the  state ;  the  one  has,  as  it  were,  the 
soul,  and  the  other  the  organized  body,  each  of  which  requires 
to  be  united  with  the  other ;"  and  he  appears  to  applaud 
"  the  original  idea  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  only  another 
name  for  the  state  and  nation  of  England."!  Burke  was  of 
the  same  opinion,  for  he  says,  "In  a  Christian  common- 
wealth, the  church  and  the  state  are  one  and  the  same  thing, 
being  different  integral  parts  of  the  same  whole."  And  this 
great  man,  whom  Dr.  Johnson  thought  a  great  man,  further 
said,  "  Religion  is  so  far,  in  my  opinion,  from  being  out  of 
the  province  or  duty  of  a  Christian  magistrate,  that  it  is,  and 
it  ought  to  be,  not  only  his  care,  but  the  2^^'incipal  tiling  in 
his  care  ;  because  it  is  one  of  the  great  bonds  of  human  so- 
ciety, and  its  object  the  supreme  good,  the  ultimate  end  and 
object  of  man  himself."  Quotations  from  wise  men  might 
be  multiplied,  but  this  one  is  sufficient. 

It  must  be  minded  that  separation  of  church  and  state 
does  not  mean  the  swamping  of  lay  power,  and  the  placing 
the  government  of  the  church  in  clerical  hands  only.  At 
present  the  church  acknowledges  herself,  even  in  her  govern- 
ing powers,  to  be  composed  of  laity  and  clergy  ;  and  though 
not  created  by  Act  of  Parliament,  neither  to  be  annihilated 
by  Act  of  Parliament,  and  hence,  not  liable  to  the  ignorant 
sarcasm  of  being  a  Parliamentary  church;  yet  she  is,  for 
some  purposes  (not  as  a  church,  but  as  an  establishment),  in 
the  hands  of  Parliament ;   and  since  Parliament  is  elected  by 

*  Arnold's  Lectures  on  Modern  History,  p.  51-59  ;  and  246. 

t  I  know  that  many  are  inclined  to  say,  that  Pai'liament  is  becomino- 
infidel,  and  the  state  is  separating  from  the  church,  not  the  church  from 
the  state — which  of  course  would  affect  the  validity  of  the  above  argu- 
ment. ''  You  are  treating  Parliament  all  through,"  such  will  exclaim, 
"as  if  composed  of  Christians,  instead  of  persons,  a  great  proportion  of 
whom  are  de  jure  excommunicate,  either  for  immorality  or  schism." 
Why  does  not  the  church  excommunicate  them  de  facto  ?  Why  docs 
she  not  extricate  herself  from  their  clutches  ?  may  be  questions  that 
naturally  occur. 


DK.  JOHNSON'S  CHURGHMANSHIP.  133 

the  people,  she  is  in.  the  hands  of  the  electoral  bodies  of  the 
United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  She  is  un- 
der the  control  and  influence  of  laymen  far  more  than  any 
sect ;  especially,  for  instance,  such  a  sect  as  the  Wesleyans, 
whose  government  in  America  is  wholly  ecclesiastical,  and  in 
England  nearly  so ;  and  governed,  too,  by  a  self-elected  body, 
who  eschew  the  representative  principle  as  practiced  by  those 
vast  bodies  of  men  who  control  the  Church  of  England. 
Doubtless,  the  church  would  be  more  independent  if  freed 
from  the  state  ;  for  then,  like  other  sects,  she  could  make 
her  own  laws,  appoint  her  own  officers,  and,  in  all  things,  do 
as  she  liked  :  but  might  we  not  justly  fear  that  her  power, 
considering  her  wealth,  talent,  and  numbers,  would  become 
too  great  ?  Should  not  the  nation  at  large  be  rightly  jealous 
of  the  authority  of  the  church  to  meet  in  convocation,  to  re- 
fuse the  crown  the  appointment  to  bishoprics,  and  to  make 
canons  at  her  discretion  ?  Parliament  has  always  broken 
through  the  absoluteness  of  church  government  of  modern 
times.  The  canons  of  1640,  passed  by  Laud  in  the  fullness 
of  his  power,  were  done  away  by  the  Parliament,  and  the 
writ  '<  De  heeretico  comburendo"  abolished  by  parliamentary 
law.  And  we  know  how  it  has  abolished,  of  very  late  time, 
tests  and  oaths,  which  were  an  impediment  to  the  free  exer- 
cise of  conscience  :  so  that  the  very  men  who  would  first  and 
most  feel  the  absence  of  parliamentary  restraint  on  the  church, 
are  those  who  are,  unreasonably  enough,  cr}'ing  out  for  the 
separation  of  church  and  state.  Let  such  men  listen  to  the 
salutary  warning  of  the  late  Dr.  Arnold  :  "If  men  run  away," 
he  says,*  "  with  the  mistaken  notion  that  liberty  of  conscience 
is  threatened  only  by  a  state  religion,  and  not  at  all  by  a 
church  religion,  the  danger  is,  that  they  will  abandon  religion 
altogether  to  what  they  call  the  church;  that  is,  to  the 
power  of  a  society  far  worse  governed  than  most  states,  and 
likely  to  lay  far  heavier  burdens  on  individual  conscience,  be- 
cause the  spirit  dominant  in  it  is  narrower  and  more  intoler- 
ant." We  have  perfect  religious  liberty  now;  such  relig- 
ious liberty  as  Paley  speaks  of,  when  he  says,  "  Heligious 
liberty  is,  like  civil  liberty,  not  an  immunity  from  restraint 
*  Lectixres  on  Modern  History,  p.  46. 


134  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

but  the  being  restrained  by  no  law  but  what  in  a  greater  de- 
gree conduces  to  tlic  iniblic  ivelfarey 

By  such  laws  the  church  is  now  controlled.  Men  should 
consider,  that,  if  deprived  of  her  endowments,  she  would  still 
be  the  wealthiest  and  most  authoritative  religious  body  in  the 
state  :  and  since  we  may  well  suppose  that  her  numbers  (as  re- 
garded veritable  and  devoted  members)  would  increase  rather 
than  decrease — for  dissenters,  if  they  speak  honestly  now, 
would  themselves  then  rush  into  the  church — might  it  not 
be  a  just  fear  lest  in  time  she  would  overpower  the  state, 
rather  than  the  state  trample  upon  her  ?  If  church  and 
state  are  to  be  separated  (and  who  are  to  separate  them  ?  for 
the  state,  we  may  imagine,  would  rather  continue  the  alli- 
ance), men  ought  to  insist  that  the  government  of  the  church 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  laity  and  clergy  alike,  and  not  intrust- 
ed to  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  persons  only.  The  arrange- 
ments of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  one  of  the  fore- 
most churches  in  Christendom,  may  be  held  up  as  a  pattern 
— a  church  that  never  hears  or  raises  the  cry  of  "  church  in 
danger,"  because  she  is  governed  only  by  churchmen,  while 
the  Church  of  England  is  compelled  to  submit  (and  hence 
the  high  church  party  encourage  the  idea  of  separation),  to 
the  legislative  enactments  of  enemies  mingled  with  friends — 
a  church  that  is  reared  on  a  noble  and  wide  platform  of  laical 
voting,  and  laical  help,  direction,  and  correction.  It  is  for 
the  people  of  England  calmly  to  consider,  whether  they  will 
best  enjoy  their  rights  and  liberties  under  a  system  of  church 
and  state,  or  with  a  church  free  and  unshackled  from  union 
with  the  state,  to  do  as  she  pleases  :  and  it  is  for  the  clergy 
and  superior  laity  to  consider  also,  whether  they  are  prepared, 
if  need  be,  to  go  into  the  wilderness  and  erect  a  palatial 
greatness  of  their  own  :  promulgate  their  laws  :  lord  it  over 
their  followers  :  and  in  all  their  desires  advance  right  ahead, 
as  though  there  were  no  such  things  as  a  House  of  Commons 
and  electoral  bodies  of  the  people  existent  in  the  nation. 

This  is  a  question  of  vast  moment  to  millions,  and  must 
be  wisely  adjudicated,  with  avoidance  of  all  extreme  notions 
which  are  apt  to  be  indulged  in  by  heated  factions.  The 
subversion  of  the  church  would  rob  an  immense  mass  of 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  135 

ihc  people  of"  their  accustomed  and  loved  means  of  religious 
instruction,  free  of  expense  comparatively  ;  while  such  an 
act  would  unsettle  their  minds,  demoralize  the  country,  and 
"  substitute  disorder  and  infidelity  for  the  benign  influences 
of  the  most  graceful  institution  that  adorns  and  blesses  the 
land."  It  is  very  probable,  that  the  very  great  majority  of 
dissenters  are,  as  we  know  the  Wesleyans  earnestly  to  be,  in 
favor  of  an  establishment  of  religion  ;  and  certainly  dissent- 
ers have  no  more  reason  to  seek  the  subversion  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  as  a  matter  of  conscience,  than  any  one 
sect  of  them  should  feel  it  incumbent  on  them  to  desire  the 
overthrow  of  every  other  sect.*  Difierence  of  opinion  there 
will  always  be,  and  we  are  not  to  seek  the  fitness  of  all  men 
to  a  Procrustean  bed,  but  to  learn  to  bear  with  diversities  of 
sentiment,  and  while  we  rejoice  in.  our  own  settledness,  seek 
to  promote  the  peace  and  welfare  of  others  ;  for,  says  St. 
Paul,  if  I  had  all  faith  ajid  had  iiot  cJiarity,  1  am  nothing 
"  He,"  observes  Jeremy  Taylor  on  this  text,  "  who,  upon 
confidence  of  his  true  belief,  denies  a  charitable  communion 
to  his  brother,  loses  thereivard  of  both.''' 

The  question  of  private  patronage  is  a  far  more  important 
one  to  the  church  at  large,  clergy  and  laity,  than  that  of 
connection  of  the  church  with  the  state.  Perhaps  this  is 
often  confounded  in  people's  minds  with  the  other  :  and  ig- 
norant persons,  who  are  led  to  believe  that  their  pastor  is  a 
"  stale  parson,"  may  be  apt  to  think  that  with  the  disrup- 
tion of  church  and  state,  the  state  parson  must  succumb  ; 

*  In  Cromwell's  time,  under  different  circumstances,  such  an  at- 
tempt was  made.  In  all  ages,  in  lesser  or  greater  extent,  such  a 
spirit  may  be  exhibited.  It  is  hai'der  in  matters  of  religion,  than  in 
political  affairs,  to  induce  persons  to  be  tolerant,  to  grant  liberty  of 
thought  to  others.  It  v.'as  well  said,  in  regard  to  political^  and  equally 
applicable  to  religious  toleration,  "  I  think  it  unreasonable  that  gentle- 
men, who  are  always  so  merry  upon  every  man  who  differs  from  them^ 
should  be  so  much  irritated  when  any  one  presumes  to  use  the  same 
liberty  ivith  them.  To  roast  a  minister,  or  a  placeman,  is  their  common 
diversion  ;  but  once  smile  at  a  patriot,  they  are  instantly  in  arms.  Such 
a  breach  of  decency  and  good  breeding  calls  for  the  loudest  outcries, 
and  severest  resentment."  Portion  of  a  speech  luckily  preserved  in 
the  scanty  Reports  of  Debates  in  the  House  of  Commons,  1740. — See 
ijtentleman' s  Magazine,  vol.  x.  p.  499. 


lae  UR.  JOHNSON'S  churchmanshu^ 

often  too,  perhaps  the  word  "  state"  is  confounded  with  that 
of  '•'  law,"  for,  after  all,  in  the  case  of  both  churchmen  and 
dissenters,  it  is  the  law  of  the  land,  more  than  the  state,  that 
is  their  principal  protection. 

It  is  a  fact,  that  the  great  mass  of  church  patronage,  or 
presentation  to  livings,  is  in  the  gift  of  the  laity  :  that  is, 
lords,  and  squires,  and  other  possessors  of  landed  and  house- 
hold property,  appoint  the  clergyman  to  the  care  of  a  parish. 
It  is  true,  that  this  right  is  limited,  owing  to  the  tests  re- 
quired by  the  church ;  and  herein  consists  a  main  use  of 
such  tests.  But  for  these,  as  Paley  observes, =^  "  a  Popish 
patron  might  appoint  a  priest  to  say  mass  to  a  congregation 
of  Protestants  :  an  Episcopal  clergyman  be  sent  to  officiate 
in  a  parish  of  Presbyterians  :  or  a  Presbyterian  divine  to  in- 
veigh against  the  errors  of  Popery  before  an  audience  of 
Papists."  He  also  notes  the  disturbance,  the  bitter  animosi- 
ties, the  unconquerable  aversions,  that  would  be  engendered 
by  popular  election  of  a  minister,  according  as,  on  each 
vacancy,  one  sectarian  party  or  other  prevailed  in  the  parish 
or  district  ;  all  which  is  to  show  us,  that  with  a  legal  and 
established  payment  there  must,  for  peace  sake,  be  legal  pref- 
erence of  one  particular  religion  to  all  others.  But  with  pat- 
ronage, as  it  at  present  holds,  we  have  only  now  to  do  ;  and 
therefore  it  is  well  to  state,  in  the  outset,  that  the  exercise 
of  private  patronage  is  much  restricted  by  the  tests  proposed 
by  the  church. 

Dr.  Johnson  has,  in  a  great  degree,  treated  this  subject 
elaborately  and  admirably.  He  argues  on  the  case  of  patron- 
age in  Scotland,  which  is  much  the  same  with  that  exercised 
in  England.  As  regards  the  positive  right  of  patronage, 
since  it  is  a  matter  of  law  and  not  conscience,  he  says  well, 
"'No  man's  conscience  can  tell  him  the  rights  of  another  man  ; 
they  must  be  known  by  rational  investigation  or  historical 
inquiry."  Again,  he  observes,  '-It  is  a  conscience  very  ill 
informed,  that  violates  the  rights  of  one  man  for  the  conven- 
ience of  another." 

He  tells  us  whence  the  right  of  patronage  was  derived. 
On  Christianity  being  established,  and  a  public  mode  of 
*  Moral  Philosophy.     On  Toleration,  vol.  ii.  p.  315. 


DR.  JOHNSOiN'S  CHUPX'HMANSHIP.  137 

worship  prescribed,  public  places  of  worship  were  required, 
and  ministers  to  officiate  in  them  :  hence  the  landed  proprie- 
tors, on  becoming  converts  to  the  faith,  built  such  places,  and 
set  apart  lands  for  the  maintenance  of  pastors  to  administer 
to  the  religious  wants  and  welfare  of  their  families  and  vas- 
sals ;  the  extent  of  a  manor  and  a  parish  being  usually  the 
same.  The  endowment  of  the  church  being  the  gift  of  the 
landlord,  he  thought  himself  at  liberty  to  give  the  possession 
of  it  to  whatever  minister  he  pleased;  "the  people  did  not 
choose  him,  because  the  people  did  not  pay  him."  This  right 
has  ever  followed  the  lands  ;  it  is  possessed  by  the  same  regis- 
try by  which  the  lands  are  possessed. 

The  right  being  certain,  next  comes  the  convenience  of  it. 
Dr.  Johnson  is  an  advocate  for  its  continuance,  in  its  present 
integrity.  Abuses,  he  seems  to  think,  can  not  be  avoided. 
"  It  were  to  be  desired,"  he  says,  speaking  of  property  in  gen- 
eral, with  his  usual  sense  of  humanity,  "  that  power  should 
be  only  in  the  hands  of  the  merciful,  and  riches  in  the  pos- 
session of  tlie  generous  :  but  the  law  must  leave  both  power 
and  riches  w^iere  it  finds  them  ;  and  must  often  leave  riches 
with  the  covetous,  and  power  with  the  cruel."  He  does  not 
think  the  people  would  gain  by  a  change  in  the  right  of  pat- 
ronage. "  Why,"  he  asks,  "should  we  suppose  that  the  parish 
will  make  a  wiser  choice  than  the  patron  ?  "  The  patron, 
he  thinks,  may  be  the  only  judge  in  a  parish  of  a  minister's 
learning,  and  of  his  piety  not  less  a  judge  than  others.  Also 
that  the  patron  would  be  most  offended  by  deficiencies  in  the 
pastor,  because  it  would  be  imputed  to  his  own  absurdity  or 
corruption.  He  is  more  likely,  too,  to  inquire  beforehand 
into  a  minister's  qualifications  and  character,  than  "  one  of 
the  parochial  rabble,  who  can  give  nothing  but  a  vote." 
Dr.  Johnson,  on  this  subject,  argues  like  a  counselor  who  is 
retained  to  make  the  best  of  his  case  ^;er  fas  et  nefas.  It 
must  be  seen  by  an  impartial  looker-on,  that  he  avoids  all 
middle  courses,  and  ranges  before  his  mental  vision  nothing 
save  the  patron  on  one  hand,  and  the  whole  people  of  a 
parish  on  the  other.  And  thus  he  goes  on  to  descant,  and, 
it  may  be,  without  exaggeration,  on  the  evils  of  the  popular 
election  of  a  minister.      These  evils  are  very  great.      A  min- 


138  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

ister  must  ply  all  the  arts,  perhaps  bribery  and  flattery,  of  a 
candidate:  and  when  he  has  won  the  day,  "on  what  terms," 
asks  Dr.  Johnson,  "  does  he  enter  upon  his  ministry  but  those 
of  enjyiity  with  lialf  his  iiaruh  ?  "  And  how  shrewd  are  the 
following  remarks,  made  with  a  keen  knowledge  of  human 
nature  in  its  common  practice  I  "  Of  a  minister  presented  by 
the  patron,  the  parish  has  seldom  any  thing  worse  to  say  than 
that  they  do  not  know  him.  Of  a  minister  chosen  by  a  pop- 
ular contest,  all  those  who  do  not  favor  him  have  nursed  up 
in  their  bosoms  principles  of  hatred  and  reasons  of  rejection. 
Anger  is  excited  principally  by  pride.  The  pride  of  a  com- 
mon man  is  very  little  exasperated  by  the  supposed  usurpation 
of  an  acknowledged  superior.  He  bears  only  his  little  share 
of  a  general  evil,  and  suffers  in  common  with  the  whole  parish  : 
but  when  the  contest  is  between  equals,  the  defeat  has  many 
aggravations  ;  and  he  that  is  defeated  by  his  next  neighbor 
is  seldom  satisfied  wdthout  some  revenge  ;  and  it  is  hard  to 
say  what  bitterness  of  malignity  would  prevail  in  a  parish 
where  these  elections  should  happen  to  be  frequent,  and  the 
enmity  of  opposition  should  be  rekindled  before  it  cooled." 

Unfortunately,  there  are  parishes  in  connection  with  the 
Church  of  England,  where  popular  election  prevails.  These 
times  usually  present  a  scene  of  intemperance,  confusion,  and 
the  display  of  wrathful  temper.  "  Williams  and  the  Gospel 
forever  ! "  "  No  Jones  and  Church  V  "  Down  with  Smith 
and  Sacraments  I "  are  loudly  shouted  by  drunken  men  at 
their  wits'  end.  And  when  even  the  popular  man  has  been 
elected,  he  has  been  subjected  to  acts  of  insolence  and  spolia- 
tion (his  windows  broken — his  harness  cut  to  pieces — garden 
ravaged),  by  miscreants  of  the  opposite  party  :  and  often  he 
himself,  innocently  and  unsuspectingly,  is  the  cause  of  enmity 
between  more  respectable  persons,  before  whom  he  can  not 
exhibit  the  symbols  of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord  of 
peace,  until  they  be  "  in  love  and  charity  with  their  neighbors  I  " 
How  often  does  the  popular  abuse  of  a  privilege  prevent  men 
from  countenancing  an  advance  toward  its  moderate  use  : 
how  often  do  men  hug  the  military  despot,  from  their  horror 
of  popular  tyranny  and  anarchy  I  Yet,  because  popular  elec- 
tion of  ministers,  in  its  full  extent,   is  to  be  avoided — and 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  139 

certainly  we  have  no  instance  of  such  popular  election  record- 
ed in  the  New  Testament — still  we  may  not  be  debarred 
from  considering  whether  a  modified  system  of  parochial  elec- 
tion may  not  be  resorted  to  with  great  advantage.  For  see 
how  dire  the  case  is  with  a  Unitarian  Lord-Chancellor  on 
the  woolsack,  and  with  lords,  and  country  gentlemen,  of  infidel 
or  profligate  principles  :  and  hence,  by  what  an  almost  heretic, 
or  by  what  a  reprobate,  unknown  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese, 
may  church  livings  be  possessed  I  How  painful,  even  to  a 
dying  evangelical  pastor,  to  know  that  a  son  or  nephew  of  the 
patron  will  succeed  him,  and  such  person  famed  mainly  for 
sporting  habits,  or  carelessness  ;  thus  leaving  the  best  of  the 
flock  to  wander  from  their  lawful  shepherd  to  seek  the  green- 
ness of  other  pastures !  In  many  cases,  too,  a  minister  may 
not  be  a  bad  man  ;  he  may  not  be  a  sportsman,  he  may  not 
be  careless,  but  he  may  not  be  such  a  man  as  the  parishioners 
have  been  accustomed  to  hear,  accustomed  to  welcome  into 
their  houses,  accustomed  to  regard  as  an  alTectionate  counselor 
and  comforter  in  sickness  and  in  health — he  may  not  be  a 
Vich  Ian  Vohr*  to  the  devoted  clan.  Ay,  he  may  be  a  good 
man,  a  kind  man,  a  sensible  man,  but  not  the  man  to  minis- 
ter to  their  spiritual  necessities  and  edification. 

And  how  is  this  to  be  remedied?  It  may  be  answered, 
by  a  modification  of  the  system.  Let  not  the  patron  be  ab- 
solute, neither  let  the  '-parochial  rabble,"  as  Johnson  terms 
them,  have  a  vote  :  but  let  the  matter  be  decided  by  the  best, 
the  most  exemplary  residents  in  the  parish,  acting  in  con- 
junction with  the  patron.  And  those  should  be  judged  to  be 
most  exemplary,  who  are  the  most  regular  attendants  on  the 
ordinances  of  the  church,  and  most  endued  w^ith  her  spirit  of 
unfeigned  faith  and  piety.  There  ought  to  be  some  plan  of 
this  kind  adopted,  now  that  the  church  claims  to  be  account- 
ed a  national  church,  and  a  clergyman  regards  himself,  by  this 
episcopal  license,  as  the  minister  of  the  whole  of  the  people 
resident  in  the  parish  to  which  he  is  appointed,  and  not  only, 
as  in  olden  time,  for  the  benefit  of  the  patron's  family  and 
dependents  :  and  it  will  happen,  that  the  people  will  desire 
and  demand  this  voice  at  a  time  when  it  may  be  perilous  to 

*  In  allusion  to  the  pathetic  farewell  words  of  Fergus  Mclvor,  in 

JVavcrJry. 


140  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

the  existence  of  the  church  to  offer  it  with  our  proposed  Hmits  ; 
perilous,  because  what  a  patron  is  asked  wiUingly  to  concede 
now,  may  be  exacted  by  a  power  of  might  before  right,  which 
respects  no  individual  will,  and  no  national  law. 

And,  after  all,  a  sensible  patron  would  wish  to  act  in 
conformity  with  the  views  of  the  respectable  and  religious  in- 
habitants of  a  parish.  It  is  very  pleasing  to  find  Dr.  John- 
son counseling  such  a  fulfillment  of  an  important  and  sacred 
duty.  He  thought  "that  a  patron  should  exercise  his  right 
with  tenderness  to  the  inclinations  of  the  people  of  a  parish  : " 
and  in  his  famous  argument  in  defence  of  lay  patronage,^ 
from  which  we  have  quoted  above,  he  observes,  "If,  by  some 
strange  concurrence,  all  the  voices  of  a  parish  should  unite  in 
the  choice  of  any  single  man,  though  I  could  not  charge  the 
patron  with  injustice  for  presenting  a  minister,  I  should  cen- 
sure him  as  unkind  and  injudicious."  We  find  from  his 
beautiful  allegory  of  Patronage  in  the  "  Hambler,"  that 
although  she  set  out  with  that  "  dignity  of  aspect  which 
struck  terror  into  false  merit,"  yet  that  ere  long  she  was  found 
to  be  "  but  half  a  goddess,"  and  her  decisions  had  been  some- 
times erroneous  :  at  last  she  began  to  "  degenerate  toward 
terrestrial  nature,  and  forgot  the  precepts  of  Justice  and 
Truth."  Bishop  Burnet  speaks  strongly:!  "Perpetual  ad- 
vowsons,  which  are  kept  in  families  as  a  provision  for  a  child, 
who  must  be  put  in  orders,  ivhatever  his  aversion  to  it  or  un- 
jitaess  for  it  'may  he,  bring  a  inostitution  on  holy  things. 
And  parents,  who  present  their  undeserving  children,  have 
this  aggravation  of  their  guilt,  that  they  are  not  so  apt  to  be 
deceived  in  this  case  as  they  may  be  when  they  present  a 
stranger.  Concerning  these  they  may  be  imposed  on  by  the 
testimony  of  those  whom  they  do  not  suspect  :  but  they  must 
be  supposed  to  be  better  informed  as  to  their  own  children." 

Johnson  might  write  with  all  the  greater  authority  on  this 
delicate  and  difiicult  matter,  since  he  so  nobly  refused  a  pres- 
entation to  an  incumbency.  This  is  a  matter  deserving  both 
these  epithets  :  delicate,  because  we  seem  to  impugn  the 
judgment  or  conscience  of  patrons  to  a  greater  degree  than 
there  may  be  actual  warrant  for  :   difficult,  because  we  are 

*  In  the  Appendix  to  Croker's  Edition  of  Boswell. 

t  The  Pastoral  Care,  hi  the  Clergyman's  Instructor,  4th  edit.  p.  230. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  HI 

interfering  with  the  best  established  rights  of  private  property  ; 
and  it  may  be  argued,  that  if  one  portion  of  our  property  is 
not  secure  against  the  law  of  innovation  and  change,  neither 
can  we  trust  that  the  other  will  always  be.  On  the  whole, 
the  present  system  is  far  better  in  its  practice  than  the  theory 
of  it  would  lead  us  to  expect ;  for  in  theory  it  appears  unsound 
and  anomalous  :  but  still  it  would  be  well,  we  would  venture 
to  think,  if  some  plan  of  the  kind  above  suggested  could  be 
assented  to  by  the  patrons  ;  for  we  hold  that  it  would  recon- 
cile people,  very  extensively,  to  the  church,  both  in  her  tem- 
poral and  spiritual  capacities,  and  very  probably  there  would, 
in  due  time,  arise  a  strong  desire  to  restore  the  ancient  discipline 
of  the  Christian  church.  It  must  be  some  moderated  scheme 
as  the  above  suggested  one,  or  the  main  grievance  would  still 
remain,  that  of  placing  the  patronage  in  the  hands  of  ungodly 
persons,  by  adopting  universal  suffrage  in  regard  to  the  in- 
habitants of  a  parish  :  and  besides,  the  clergy  themselves, 
in  some  instances,  in  populous  places,  might  be  led,  in.stead 
of  flattering  one  person,  to  flatter  the  age,  which,  of  the  two 
kinds  of  hateful  pandering,  is  the  most  mischievous,  and  fully 
as  degrading.  The  poet  Wordsworth^  describes  such  a  one 
who,  excited  by  the  breaking  out  of  the  French  Revolution,  and 
hastening  from  his  rural  and  retired  home  into  the  metropolis  : 

'•  Thither  his  popular  talents  he  transferr'd ; 
And  from  the  pulpit  zealously  maintained 
The  cause  of  Christ  and  civil  liberty, 
As  one,  and  moving  to  one  glorious  end. 
Intoxicating  service !" 

But  how  does  the  poet  picture  his  sad  and  miserable  end, 
when, 

'•  In  despite 
Of  all  this  outside  bravery,  within, 
He  neither  felt  encouragement  nor  hope : 
For  moral  dignity,  and  strength  of  mind, 
Were  wanting,  and  simplicity  of  life  ; 
And  reverence  for  himself:  and,  last  and  best. 
Confiding  thoughts  through  love  and  fear  of  Him 
Before  whose  sight  the  troubles  of  this  world 
Are  vain  as  billows  in  a  tossing  sea." 


*  The  Excursion,  book  ii.  p.  49-51. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
HIS    CHUROHMANSHIP 

Dr.  Johnson  read  many  works  in  divinity,  and  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  writings  of  some  of  the  most  celebrated 
divines  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  well  as  with  a  few  of 
those  of  dissenting  denominations.  Sir  John  Pringle  once 
expressed  a  wish  that  Boswell  would  ask  him,  What  were 
the  best  English  sermons  for  style?  Accordingly,  Boswell 
took  a  fitting  opportunity,  and  began  with  a  name  which 
probably  he  thought  would  best  secure  Johnson's  favorable 
judgment  and  sympathy. 

Boswell. — "  Atterbury  ?" 

Johnson. — "Yes,  sir,  one  of  the  best." 

Boswell. — "  Tillotson  ''" 

Johnson. — "  Why,  not  now.  I  should  not  advise  a 
preacher  at  this  day  to  imitate  Tillotson's  style  :  though  I 
don't  know  ;  /  should  be  cautious  of  objecting  to  ivhat  has 
been  cqii^lauded  by  so  many  suffrages.  South  is  one  of  the 
best,  if  you  except  his  peculiarities,  and  his  violence,  and 
sometimes  coarseness  of  language.  Seed  has  a  very  fine 
style  :  but  he  is  not  very  theological.  Jortin's  sermons  are 
very  elegant.  Sherlock's  style,  too,  is  very  elegant,  though 
he  has  not  made  it  his  principal  study.  And  you  may  add 
Smalridge.  All  the  latter  preachers  have  a  good  style.  In- 
deed, nobody  now  talks  much  of  style  :  every  body  composes 
pretty  well.  I  should  recommend  Dr.  Clarke's  sermons,  were 
he  orthodox.  However,  it  is  very  well  known  ivhere  he  is 
not  orthodox,  which  was  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as 
to  which  he  is  considered  a  heretic  :   so  one  is  aware  of  it." 

Boswell. — "I  like  Ogden's  sermons  on  Prayer  very  much, 
both  for  neatness  of  style,  and  subtilty  of  reasoning." 

Johnson. — '<  I  should  like  to  read  all  that  Ogden  has 
written." 


i)li.  .lOlINSON'S  CHURCHMANSHir.  143 

BoswELL. — "  What  I  wish  to  know  is,  what  sermons 
afford  the  best  specimen  of  Enghsh  pulpit  eloquence." 

Johnson. — "  We  have  no  sermons  addressed  to  the  pas- 
sions that  are  good  for  any  thing  :  if  you  mean  that  kind  of 
eloquence." 

A  Clergyman  (whose  name  I  do  not  recollect). — ''  Were 
not  Dodd's  sermons  addressed  to  the  passions  ?" 

Johnson. — "  They  were  nothing,  sir,  be  they  addressed  to 
what  they  may." 

Bishop  Atterbury,  as  an  adherent,  in  his  heart,  of  the  Pre- 
tender, a  maintainer  of  the  use  and  rights  of  Convocation, 
and   as  a  supporter  of  Sacheverel,  and  drawing  on  himself 
the  opposition  of  Hoadley,  would  certainly  find  favor  in  John- 
son's eyes  ;  but  still,  though  a  man  of  too  ardent  and  haughty 
a  disposition,  he  was   accounted   an  eloquent  preacher,  and, 
next  to  Smalridge,  one  of  the  finest  Latin  writers  of  his  time. 
He  was  both  a  learned  and  a  brilliant  man.      The  severity 
with  which  he  was  treated  when  the  charge  of  high  treason 
(too  justly)  was  brought  against  him,  and  the  rigorous  treat- 
ment which  was  continued  toward  him  in  his  banishment, 
though  Pope  hoped  that  Providence  had  appointed  him  to 
some  great  and  useful  work  (of  genius  rather  than  politics), 
and  called  him  to  it  in  this  severe  way,  could  not  but  call 
forth  the  commiseration  of  the  multitude  with  whom  he  was 
popular,  as  well  as  the  cordial  sympathy  of  the  learned  and 
more  accomplished  of  mankind.      The  spirit  of  Atterbury  is 
still,   in  some  degree,  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  best 
represented,  perhaps,  by  the   able  and  undaunted  Bishop   of 
Exeter  (Dr.  Philpotts),  a  man  supposed  by  the  thoughtless 
to  lean  toward  the  Church  of  Rome,  but,  like  Atterbury,  when 
tempted  by  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne,  ready  to  take  up  the 
gauntlet  on  the  condition  that  the  Bible  should  be  taken  for 
the  sole  and  ultimate  rule  of  decision.      It  was  a  brother  of 
the  bishop  (Lewis  Atterbury)  who  answered  the  attack  of 
Colson  (a  Roman  Catholic)  on  the  Discourses  against  Pop- 
ery by  Archbishop  Tillotson,  so  that  both  the  brothers,  as  high 
churchmen,  were  learned  and  stanch  Protestants. 

Johnson  qualifies  his  observations  on  Archbishop  Tillotson, 
though  elsewhere  he  complains  of  his  "  verbosity."      Correct 


144  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHiMANSHIP. 

writers  would  not  be  pleased  with  the  style  of  Tillotsoii, 
though  his  argument  and  matter  are  so  valuable.  In  Sir 
Thomas  Fitzosborne's  Letters^^  (the  real  author  of  which 
was  William  Melraoth,  famed  for  elegant  diction),  exception 
is  taken  to  the  archbishop's  ill-chosen  words,  inharmonious 
periods,  and  mean  metaphors  ;  this  author  regretting  that 
"  he  who  abounds  with  such  generous  and  noble  sentiments, 
should  want  the  art  of  setting  them  ofi'  with  all  the  advant- 
age they  deserve."  Still  his  sermons  are  a  great  storehouse 
of  divinity,  calculated  to  convince  the  skeptic,  arm  the  Pro- 
testant, and  confirm  the  Christian. 

Tillotson,  politically  and  theologically  speaking,  may  be 
accounted  the  very  opposite  of  Atterbury.  He,  the  early 
nonconformist  (and  friend  of  Bishop  Wilkins,  brother-in-law 
of  Cromwell,  so  anxious  to  comprehend  dissenters  within  the 
pale  of  the  church),  who  was  promoted  by  King  William  ; 
who  wrote,  "  I  thank  God  I  have  lived  to  have  my  last 
desire  in  this  world,  which  was  this  hapj^y  devolution ;  who 
succeeded  a  retiring  non-juror  on  the  throne  of  Lambeth  ; 
who  wished  the  church  were  well  rid  of  the  Athanasian 
Creed  :  between  such  a  one  and  the  Bishop  of  Rochester 
there  could  be  little  agreement  ;  and  hence  we  find  the 
whole  of  that  party  who  would,  in  later  times,  have  fol- 
lowed Atterbury,  pronouncing  Tillotson  to  be  a  schismatic, 
and  pursuing  him  with  hatred  and  scurrilous  language,  even 
to  his  death.  All  this  he  bore  with  remarkable  mildness 
and  there  seems  to  have  been  in  him  a  notable  union  of 
intellectual  power  with  natural  sweetness  of  disposition.  His 
moderation  and  sober  arguments  converted  the  Earl  of 
Shrewsbury  to  Protestantism.  "  I  am,  and  always  was,  more 
concerned,"  he  says,  "  that  your  lordship  should  continue  a 
virtuous  and  good  man,  than  become  a  Protestant ;  being 
assured  that  the  ignorance  and  errors  of  men's  understanding 
will  find  a  much  easier  forgiveness  with  God,  than  the  faults 
of  their  will."  Now  that  all  party  prejudices  of  that  time 
have  passed  away,  as  regards  their  personal  application,  Til- 
lotson's  works  are  reaping  their  due  and  just  reward  ;   and 

*  Letters  on  Several   Subjects,  by  Sir  Thomas  Fitzosborne,  Bart. 
Letter  24. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  145 

though  it  may  not  be  desirous  always  to  imitate  his  style, 
yet  who  would  not  wish  to  possess  one  tithe  of  his  vast 
powers  of  reasoning  and  sublimity  in  morals,  as  well  as  sound 
Christian  teaching  displayed  in  his  discourses  ?  He  shone 
as  a  preacher,  and  is  said,  more  than  any  other  preacher  of 
reputation,  to  have  been  the  means  of  establishing  in  the 
Church  of  England  the  habit  of  delivering  written  sermons. 
Atterbury  was  born  about  seven  years  after  the  decease  of 
this  archbishop. 

Dr.  South,  in  part  a  contemporary  of  Atterbury,  was  born, 
thirty-four  years  previous  to  the  death  of  Tillotson.  These 
divines  are  taken,  not  in  chronological,  but  in  order  as  spoken 
of  by  Dr.  Johnson.  Dr.  Johnson  especially  recommended 
his  sermons  on  Prayer.  Some  sentences  in  these  resemble 
Johnson's  style ;  for  instance,  where  he  is  speaking  on  brevity 
of  expression  in  prayer,  especially  since  the  Almighty  can 
anticipate  our  wants  :  "  For,"  he  says,  "  according  to  the 
most  natural  interpretation  of  things,  this  is  to  ascribe  to  him 
a  sagacity  so  quick  and  piercing,  that  it  were  presumption  to 
inform,  and  a  benignity  so  great,  that  it  were  needless  to 
importune  him."  In  this  discourse  he  uses  his  more  homely 
way,  and  says  :  "  It  is  a  common  saying.  If  a  man  does  not 
know  how  to  pray,  let  him  go  to  sea,  and  that  will  teach 
him  :"  and  again,  he  speaks  of  a  man  talking  of  storms, 
shipwrecks,  &c.,  when  "  safe  and  warm  in  his  parlor ;" 
though  he  finishes  this  discourse  with  elegant  conciseness  : 
"  And  I  know  no  prayer  necessary,"  he  says,  "  that  is  not  in 
the  Liturgy,  but  one  ;  which  is  this.  That  God  would  vouch- 
safe to  continue  the  Liturgy  itself  in  use,  honor,  and  venera- 
tion, in  this  church  forever." 

Never  was  there  such  a  slashing  preacher  as  South  ;  he 
was  as  the  Picton  or  the  Murat  of  the  ecclesiastical  army. 
Determined  to  read  the  proscribed  Prayer  Book  when  he 
was  at  Oxford,  in  vain  was  Cromwellian  discipline  brought 
against  him,  in  vain  did  the  Independent  dean  of  his  college 
attempt  to  withstand  his  fearless  and  sarcastic  answers.  No 
man  was  more  rude  and  violent  in  controversy,  whether  in 
opposition  to  Sherlock,  or  to  the  disputing  fanatics,  whom  he 
ridiculed  and  detested,  always  accounting  them  to  be  wolves 

G 


146  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

in  sheep's  clothing  ;  and  yet  we  are  told,  that  he  was  sin- 
cerely and  humbly  pious,  and  passed  much  time  in  private  de- 
votion, ever  fearing  a  return  to  popery  and  arbitrary  govern- 
ment. IIow  possible  is  it  for  men  themselves  to  be  most 
arbitrary  in  their  opposition  to  arbitrary  measures !  His 
unrivaled  abilities  made  his  preaching  popular,  and  never  in 
any  man's  life  could  more  exuberant  zeal  have  been  dis- 
played. He  was  another  Atterbury  in  politics  and  theology, 
with  still  greater  power,  still  more  aggressive  spirit.  He 
minced  not  matters,  and  with  the  puritanical  religionists  of 
the  age  he  waged  undying  war.  Much  to  his  honor,  he 
refused  preferment  over  and  over  again.  He  was  offered  an 
archbishopric  in  Ireland,  and  declined  ;  he  would  not  succeed 
one  of  the  deprived  bishops  in  England  ;  he  refused  the 
bishopric  of  Rochester  (which  Atterbury  accepted),  with  the 
deanery  of  Westminster.  Johnson  has  well  described  South's 
style,  but,  perhaps,  the  very  defects  alluded  to  won  him  an 
immense  popularity  ;  and  very  many  would  think  that  we 
need  his  bold  and  unsparing  manner  in  this  our  smoother 
day.  Altogether,  notwithstanding  his  brilliant  powers,  his 
was  not  the  mind  and  heart  that  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church 
of  England  is  calculated  to  form  and  cherish,  for  he  lacked 
the  calmness,  and  sweetness,  and  largeness  which  are  its  char- 
acteristics :  like  the  mild  Melancthon,  it  is  ivords  and  mat- 
ter.^ It  must  be  recollected  that  South  lived  in  a  day  when 
men  most  arrogantly  laid  claim  to  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit — 
when  "to  be  book-learned  and  to  be  irreligious,  were  almost 
terms  convertible  ;"  and  when  a  vulgar  fanaticism  led  the 
multitude  to  prefer  the  discoursing  of  ignorant  men,  who 
were  "  able  to  make  a  pulpit  before  they  preached  in  it."t 

*  "It  is  reported,  that  in  the  house  of  worthy  Mr.  Luther,"  says 
Bishop  Hall,  "  was  found  written,  '  Melancthon  was  words  and  matter  ; 
Luther  matter  without  words;  Erasmus  words  without  matter.'  ■' 

t  Dr.  South,  although  not  greatly  liking  the  constitution  of  the  state 
as  prevailing  in  his  time — for  he  acknowledged  the  legality  of  the  suc- 
cession only  as  determined  by  necessity,  when  James  had  withdrawn — 
yet  was  a  strenuous  supporter  of  the  union  of  church  and  state, 
preaching  from  the  significant  text  of  1  Kings  xiii.  33,  34,  and  largely 
quoting  Scripture  in  favor  of  his  views.  In  this  discourse,  he  charac- 
eristically  says,  for  it  comes  well  from  one  who  refused  so  much 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  147 

In  these  days  of  education  and  general  enlightenment  we  are 
escaping  from  such  absurdities,  and  for  the  article  of  religion 
we  go  rather  to  the  studies  of  the  most  learned  and  disci;pet. 
At  the  same  time,  there  must  be  no  display  of  learned 
subtlety  and  curious  interpretation,  for  those  who  are  hunger- 
ing for  the  plain  and  common  bread  of  life,  or  the  complaints 
of  M.  de  Sorbierre  against  Clement  the  Ninth,  for  sending 
him  compliments  rather  than  substantial  aid  in  his  necessi- 
ties, may  be  realized.  "  He  sends,"  he  says,  "  sweetmeats  to 
one  who  wants  solid  food  I  ruffles  to  a  man  that  has  never 
a  shirt  I  I  wish  to  Heaven  that  he  would  but  allow  me 
bread,  to  eat  with  the  butter  which  he  presents  me  with." 
Jortin  and  Sherlock  are  still  much  read  by  common  readers 
of  divinity.  Of  the  former  we  are  told,=^  that  though  there 
may  be  many  writers  "whose  reputation  is  more  diffused 
among  the  vulgar  and  illiterate,  but  few  will  be  found  whose 
names  stand  higher  than  Dr.  Jortin's  in  the  esteem  of  the 
judicious.  His  Latin  poetry  is  classically  elegant;  his  dis- 
courses and  dissertations,  sensible,  ingenious,  and  argumenta- 
tive ;  his  sermons  replete  with  sound  sense  and  rational  mo- 
rality, expressed  in  a  style  simple,  pure,  and  Attic."  He 
was  remarkable  for  "a  simplicity  of  manners,  an  inoffensive 
behavior,  and  universal  benevolence,  candor,  modesty,  and 
good  sense."      He  was  fond  of  a  laconic  mode  of  speech,  and 

great  preferment,  "  It  is  a  sad  thing  when  all  other  employments  shall 
empty  themselves  into  the  ministry,  when  men  shall  repair  to  it  for 
refuge."  And  he  again  speaks  :  '•  Religion  in  a  great  measure  stands 
or  falls  according  to  the  abilities  of  those  who  assert  it."  And  just 
before,  in  his  accustomed  manner,  he  had  thus  jocosely  treated  his  dis- 
senting brethren  :  ''  The  ignorant  have  took  heart  to  venture  upon  this 
great  calling ;  and  instead  of  cutting  their  way  to  it,  according  to  the 
usual  course,  through  the  knowledge  of  the  tongues,  the  study  of  phi- 
losophy, school  divinity,  the  fathers  and  councils,  they  have  taken 
another  and  a  shorter  cut ;  and  having  read,  perhaps,  a  treatise  or  two 
upon  ■  The  Heart,'  '  The  Bruised  Reed,'  '  The  Crumbs  of  Comfort,' 
'  WoUebius  in  English,'  and  some  other  little  authors — the  usual  furni- 
ture of  old  women's  closets — they  have  set  forth  as  accomplished 
divines,  and  forthwith  they  present  themselves  to  the  service ;  and  there 
have  not  been  wanting  Jeroboams  as  wilUng  to  consecrate  and  reqeivo 
them,  as  they  to  offer  themselves." 

*  Essays,  Moi'al  and  Literary,  by  Vicesiraus  Knox,  vol.  ii.  p.  115, 
2d  edition. 


148  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

being  once  asked  by  a  clergyman  why  he  did  not  publish  his 
sermons,  "  They  shall  sleep,"  he  replied,  "  till  I  sleep."  His 
last  words  in  the  hour  of  death  were  significant,  when,  in 
answer  to  a  female  attendant  who  offered  him  some  nourish- 
ment, he  said,  with  great  composure,  "No;  I  have  had 
enough  of  every  thing."  Sherlock  we  may  call  more  than 
elegant ;  he  is  argumentative  in  his  occasional  discourses,  as 
well  as  in  those  on  Prophecy,  and  awful  in  his  book  on 
Death.  Yet  we  know  not  which  of  the  Sherlocks'  writings 
Dr.  Johnson  here  alludes  to,  the  father  or  son,  though  the 
latter  was  his  contemporary,  and  probably  the  one  meant ; 
but  both  were  controversial :  the  former  carried  on  a  con- 
troversy with  South  respecting  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
and  also  successfully  exposed  the  Puritans  ;  and  the  son  with 
Bishop  Hoadley  in  defense  of  the  Corporation  and  Test  Acts  ; 
and  the  practical  compositions  of  both  are  much  admired  : 
the  latter  especially  is  considered  as  affording  one  of  the  best 
patterns  of  English  pulpit  eloquence.  "You  may  add  Smal- 
ridge,"  remarks  Johnson  ;  and  a  worthy  addition  too.  A 
more  exact  scholar  than  Atterbury,  and  taking  the  same  line 
of  politics,  he  lacked  his  bold  and  furious  energy.  No  man 
could  be  more  careful  than  he  was  to  preserve  the  golden 
mean  between  Romanism  and  Dissent,  and  this  is  amply 
proved  if  we  only  refer  to  his  very  discreet  and  considerate 
discourse  on  Religious  Ceremonies,  in  which,  while  he  greatly 
lauds  the  Reformation  because  it  restored  such  matters  to 
their  primitive  simplicity  and  pure  intention,  he  yet  candidly 
says  :  "In  the  Romish  religion  there  are  some  things  evil, 
some  things  good,  some  things  wholly  indifferent."  And 
truly  does  he  aver,  that  if  it  be  laid  down  as  a  good  rule  of  ref- 
ormation, that  we  must  depart  as  far  as  possible  from  Rome, 
we  must  renou7ice  the  articles  of  our  Creed,  because  they  of 
that  church  profess  to  believe  them ;  we  must  declare  our- 
selves Socinfans  that  we  may  be  thought  stanch  Protest- 
ants ;  and  we  must  renounce  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
because  it  is  held  by  those  who  do  also  hold  that  of  Tran- 
Bubstantiation.  This  agrees  well  with  the  matchless  Hooker, 
who  says,  "  They  which  measure  religion  by  dislike  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  think  every  man  so  much  the  more  sound, 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCH  MANS  HIP.  149 

by  how  much  he  can  make  the  corruptions  thereof  to  seem 
more  large."*  In  the  present  day  there  is  much  vitupera- 
tion of  the  Roman  CathoUc  behef,  indeed  it  stands  forth  too 
prominently  in  lieu  of  those  sound  arguments  against  the 
Church  of  Rome  which  every  Protestant  should  as  mildly 
and  firmly,  as  he  may  legitimately,  use.  What  good  pur- 
pose have  fierce  denunciations  ever  subserved  ?  and  what 
evil  purposes  have  they  not  subserved  ?  Will  Roman  Catho- 
lics be  converted  by  wholesale  anathemas  directed  against 
their  faith  ?  or  will  Church  of  England  Protestantism  gain 
by  such  virulence  and  such  rhetoric  ?  No,  he  who  should 
admire  the  scolding  would  be  as  unworthy  as  the  scolder,  and 
his  conversion,  further  than  mere  change  of  opinion,  would 
not  be  worth  recording  in  the  Reformed  Church.  No  persons 
miss  their  aim  so  thoroughly  and  so  frequently  as  those  who 
deal  in  abuse  rather  than  in  reasoning,  who  exhibit  a  knowl- 
edge of  religion  in  the  head,  but  no  practical  holding  of  it 
in  the  heart,  '•  The  Scripture  philosophy  is,  says  Alexander 
Knox,  "  that  there  are  no  right  actions  where  there  are  no 
right  tempers  :"  and  he  describes  a  Roman  Catholic,  of  whom 
he  says,  "  I  never  heard,  nor  could  expect  to  hear,  any  Ro- 
man Catholic  speak  more  the  language,  and  breathe  more 
the  spirit,  of  unfeigned  Christian  charity."  f  In  short,  he 
desired  to  do  all  he  could  to  promote  and  cherish  Christian 
sympathy.  This  conduct,  of  course,  had  a  pleasing  efiect 
on  Knox  ;  and  such  a  temper  on  the  part  of  Protestants 
would,  in  a  similar  manner,  afiect  the  hearts  of  Roman 
Catholics.  Ogden  he  praised  more  than  once,  but  somehow 
or  other,  he  often  took  up  his  sermons,  and  as  quickly  laid  them 
down,  although  he  expressed  a  desire  to  become  acquainted 
with  all  his  works.  He  was  a  Church  of  England  divine, 
and  an  elegant  writer,  and  acute  reasoner. 

"  I  prevailed  on  Dr.  Johnson,"  says  Boswell,  "  to  read 
aloud  Ogden's  sixth  Sermon  on  Prayer,  which  he  did  with  a 
distinct  expression,  and  pleasing  solemnity.  Pie  praised  my 
favorite  preacher,  his  elegant  language,  and  remarkable 
acuteness  ;  and  said,  he  fought  infidels  with  their  own  weap- 

*  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  vol.  ii.  p.  460. 
t  Knox's  Correspondence,  vol.ii.  p.  33. 


150  DR.  JOHiNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

ons."  ]ii  this  sermon,  which  is  a  very  short  one,  he  advo- 
cates the  doctrine  of  Free-will,  saying  :  "  Can  we  suppose  the 
Supreme  Being  thus  violently  to  invade  His  own  works,  and 
overrule  the  minds  of  His  creatures,  whom  He  hath  made 
free  ?  where,  henceforth,  is  their  blame  or  merit  ?  and 
where  His  justice?"^  Johnson  afterward  said,  "I  should 
like  to  read  all  that  Ogden  has  written."  In  Sermon  II. 
on  the  Articles  of  Faith,  he  has  this  admirable  sentence  : 
*«  We  stand  disputing  and  quarreling  about  the  religion  of 
Nature  and  Revelation,  but  regard  neither  much  further 
than  the  mere  profession  :  zealots  for  a  system  which  has 
no  efTect  on  our  heart  or  life  :  contending,  each  ivith  eager - 
?iess  for  the  articles  of  his  faith  ;  agreeing,  on  both  sides,  to 
forget  the  duty  of  it'''  Bishop  Halifax,  who  edits  the 
Sermons  of  Ogden,  speaks  of  the  fifth  discourse  on  the  Arti- 
cles of  Faith,  which  was  preached  before  a  learned  auditory 
at  Cambridge,  as  an  "  elegant  representation  of  the  dialectic 
genius  of  the  Platonic  school."  Dr.  Ogden,  according  to 
the  account  given  of  him  by  Bishop  Halifax,  was  a  most 
humane  and  tender-hearted  man,  though  of  rustic  address 
and  stern  aspect.  During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  labor- 
ed under  much  ill-health,  but  endured  all  his  illness  with  cheer- 
fulness, for  "  he  was  fully  resigned  to  the  disposals  of  Provi- 
dence, and  full  of  the  hopes  of  happiness  in  a  better  state." 

The  interest  that  Dr.  Johnson  took  in  the  melancholy 
affairs  of  Dr.  Dodd  is  well  known  to  every  reader  of  Bos- 
well's  Life ;  and  probably  that  excellent  paper,  in  the 
Hambler,  on  capital  punishments,  was  written  with  the  fate 
of  poor  Dodd  in  his  view.  This  minister  was  a  popular  and 
fashionable  preacher  ;  and  popularity  and  fashion  are  snares 
at  all  times,  in  all  cases,  but  peculiarly  so  to  the  preacher. 
Horace  Walpole,  on  one  occasion,  admired  him  in  this 
capacity,  saying  that  he  harangued  "very  eloquently  and 
touchingly,"  and  his  serm.on,  altogether,  "  a  very  pleasing 
performance  ;"  it  was  difficult  to  extort  praise  of  this  kind 
from  such  a  man.  His  idea  of  a  preacher  (and,  too  often,  a 
true  one)  was  identical  with  that  of  an  actor  ;  for  of  Whit- 
field he  said,  "  Lord  Chesterfield,  Lord  Bath,  Lady  Townsend, 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  63,  4th  edit,  of  Sermons  by  Dr.  Samuel  Ogden,  1788. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  151 

Lady  Thanct,  and  others,  have  been  to  hear  him  ;  nor  fchall 
I  wonder  if  next  winter  he  is  run  after  instead  of  Gar  rick  /" 
Of  Wesley,  too  :  "  Wesley  is  a  clean,  elderly  man,  fresh 
colored,  his  hair  smoothly  combed,  but  with  a  little  sou2')gon 
of  ciui  at  the  ends  ;  wondrous  clever,  but  as  evidently  an 
actor  as  Garrickr  While  of  his  sermon  he  says,  "■  There 
were  parts  and  eloquence  in  it ;  but  toward  the  end  he 
exalted  his  voice,  and  acted  very  vulgar  enthusiasm'''  The 
epithets  of  "wondrous  clever"  must  have  been  quite  as  inap- 
propriate to  Wesley  as  the  charge  of  mere  acting.  Dr.  Dodd 
had  probably  much  of  the  actor  about  him  ;  and  we  may 
suppose  that  Dr.  Johnson  would  neither  like  his  manner  nor 
the  matter  of  his  sermons,  neither  did  he  think  well  of  his 
character  ;  so  that  the  very  great  trouble  which  he  went 
through  in  his  behalf  redounds  the  more  to  the  credit  of  his 
extraordinary  humanity  ;  indeed,  misfortune  at  once  insured 
the  sympathy  and  kind  efforts  of  Dr.  Johnson.  In  one  case 
he  thought  well  of  Dodd's  honesty  ;  for  when  this  man's  friends 
were  attempting  to  console  him  by  saying  that  he  was  going 
to  leave  "  a  wretched  world,"  he  had  honesty  enough  not  to 
join  in  the  cant.  "No,  no,"  said  he,  "it  has  been  a  very 
agreeable  world  to  me."  Johnson  added,  "  I  respect  Dodd 
for  thus  speaking  the  truth." 

Another  batch  of  divines  and  laity  came  under  Johnson's 
criticisms.  Sir  John  Hawkins  tells  us  :  "  Hooker  he  admired 
for  his  logical  precision,  Sanderson  for  his  acuteness,  and 
Taylor  for  his  amazing  erudition ;  Sir  Thomas  Browne  for 
his  penetration,  and  Cowley  for  the  ease  and  unaffected 
structure  of  his  periods.  The  tinsel  of  Sprat  disgusted  him, 
and  he  could  but  just  endure  the  smooth  verbosity  of  Tillot- 
son,  Hammond  and  Barrow  he  thought  involved  :  and  of 
the  latter,  that  he  was  unnecessarily  prolix." 

Croker  thinks  it  may  be  doubted  whether  Hawkins  has 
accurately  preserved  the  characteristic  qualities  which  John- 
son attributed  to  these  illustrious  men  ;  and  certainly,  those 
best  acquainted  with  their  writings  may  justly  hold  the  same 
opinion. 

Of  Hooker,  "this  meek,  this  matchless  man,"  as  Isaac 
Walton  calls  him,  him  of  the  dove-like  temper,  little  need  be 


152  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

said,  for  his  works  are  patent  to  all  mankind,  and  we  can  not 
conceive  the  age  or  state  of  the  world  when  they  will  not 
be  read,  and  the  man  himself  be  "  freshly  remembered." 
"  There  are  in  them  such  seeds  of  eternity,"  observed  the 
Pope  to  Dr.  Stapleton,  "  they  shall  last  till  the  last  fire  shall 
consume  all  learning."*  He  possessed,  truly,  a  quiet  and 
capacious  soul.  And  how  mildly  does  he,  the  foremost  con- 
troversialist, the  opponent  of  the  eloquent  and  more  impetuous 
Travers,  say  of  himself,  "  I  take  no  joy  in  striving  ;  I  have 
not  been  trained  up  in  it :"  and  again,  he  prays,  "  that  no 
strife  may  ever  be  heard  of  again,  but  this,  who  shall  hate 
strife  most,  also  shall  pursue  peace  and  unity  with  swiftest 
paces."  And  "  how  mournful,"  he  observes,  "  is  that  saying 
of  Gregory  Nazianzen,  '  The  only  godliness  we  glory  in,  is  to 
find  out  somewhat  whereby  we  may  judge  others  to  be  un- 
godly !  Each  other's  faults  we  observe,  as  matters  of  ex- 
probation,  and  not  of  grief  "  It  is  a  great  comfort  that  the 
writings  of  Hooker,  unlike  those  of  South  or  Atterbury,  may 
be  placed  in  the  hands  of  dissenters  without  the  least  likeli- 
hood of  giving  offense  to  the  most  sensitive  or  querulous,  just 
as  we  would  put  Sir  Isaac  Newton's  works  in  the  way  of 
those  who  might  not  comprehend  the  wisdom  of  his  dis- 
coveries. And  no  man  should  lift  his  voice  against  the 
church,  or  any  ceremony  or  custom  of  the  church,  until  he 
has  first  read  and  weighed  in  his  mind  the  arguments  of 
Hooker :  to  do  otherwise  would  be  manifestly  unfair  and  in- 
judicious. Far  more  than  mere  "  logical  precision"  is  to  be 
admired  in  the  pages  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  and  well 
doth  the  modern  poet  f  sing  of  him, 

"  Voice  of  the  meekest  man  ! 
Now,  while  the  church  for  combat  arms, 

Calmly  do  thou  confirm  her  awful  ban ; 
Thy  words  to  her  be  conquermg,  soothing  charms." 


*  It  was  said  of  Padre  Paulo,  Sir  Hemy  Wotton's  (when  embassador 
to  the  state  of  Venice)  dear  friend,  and  the  man  whom  Bishop  Sander- 
son desired  to  see,  "  as  one  of  the  late  miracles  of  general  learning, 
prudence,  and  modesty" — one  who  was  of  invincible  bashfulness,  that 
he  was  "a  man  whose  fame  must  never  die,  till  virtue  and  learning 
shall  become  so  useless  as  not  to  be  regarded." — Walton'' s  Lives. 

t  Isaac  Williams,  a  true  sacred  poet.     See  "  The  Cathedral." 


DR.  JOHNSOiN'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  153 

The  events  of  Sanderson's  life  would  have  caused  him  to 
be  a  friend  of  Johnson's,  and,  like  Johnson  himself,  he  was 
in  great  poverty  while  writing  some  of  his  noblest  compositions. 
AVe  are  told  of  his  biographer  meeting  him  "  accidentally  in 
London,  in  sad-colored  clothes,"  at  the  very  time  he  was 
publishing  his  "  large  and  bold"  preface  to  his  Sermons,  a 
grand  defense  of  the  Episcopal  clergy  against  the  censures  of 
the  Puritans.  He  lived  in  a  time  when,  says  the  amiable 
Walton,  "in  London  all  the  bishops'  houses  were  turned  to 
be  prisons,  and  they  filled  with  divines  that  would  not  take 
the  Covenant,  or  forbear  reading  Common  Prayer,"  &c.  ; 
and  when  "  all  the  corners  of  the  earth  were  filled  with 
Covenanters,  confusion,  committee-men,  and  soldiers,  serving 
each  other  to  their  several  ends,  of  revenge,  or  power,  or 
profit."  In  these  days  there  were  needless  and  fierce  de- 
bates, about  free-will,  election,  reprobation,  predestination,  anti- 
christ, extempore  prayers,  &c.  &c.,  but  very  little  practice  of 
humility,  charity,  sincerity,  and  single-heartedness  :  so  that 
Laud  well  said,  "  We  have  lost  the  substance  of  religion  by 
changing  it  into  opinion  ;"  and  good  Isaac  AValton  writes,* 
«'  When  I  look  back  upon  the  ruin  of  families,  the  bloodshed, 
the  decaij  of  common  honesty,  and  how  \\\q  former  inetij  and 
'plain  dealing  of  this  now  sinful  nation  is  turned  into  cruelty 
and  cunning,  I  praise  God  that  He  prevented  me  from  being 
of  that  party  which  helped  to  bring  in  this  Covenant,  and 
those  sad  confusions  that  have  followed  it."  And  such  would 
be  the  case  again  were  the  candlestick  of  the  church  removed 
out  of  its  place.  In  Wales,  at  the  present  time,  wherein 
dissent  so  rampantly  prevails,  we  are  told  by  Her  Majesty's 
commissioners,  deputed  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  education, 
that  the  people  will  talk  and  wrangle  for  hours  on  questions 
of  baptismal  regeneration,  election,  &c.,  and  yet  be  mersed 
in  the  greatest  ignorance,  and  be  living  in  defiance  of  all 
rules  of  morality  and  charity.  So  that  when  the  Honorable 
Baptist  Noel  predicts  a  sort  of  spiritual  millennium  for  the 
church  on  its  separation  from  the  state,  and  says,t  "  Sound 
doctrine   will   then   be   heard   from   most  of  the  AngUcan 

*  Life  of  Sanderson,  edit.  1823,  p.  316. 
t  Mr.  Noel's  Essay,  p.  627,  &c. 


154  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

pulpits,  schisms  will  be  mitigated,"  &c.,  we  may  beg  leave 
to  dissent  from  his  prospective  views,  and,  with  the  pages 
of  past  history  and  present  evidence  before  us,  rather  be- 
lieve that  such  sound,  and  hearty,  and  undefiled  religion  as 
now  prevails  in  the  Church  of  England,  would  rarely  be 
witnessed  again  ;  and  that  the  old  clergy  would  be  found  to 
be  the  Hookers  and  Sandersons,  the  meek  and  matchless  men 
of  the  new  times.  How  often  do  men  disregard  the  peril  of 
extremes  I  and  thus  Sanderson  notes  it  as  a  thing  observed, 
that  "  in  those  counties  (Lancashire  for  one)  where  there  are 
the  most,  and  the  most  rigid  Presbyterians,  there  are  also 
the  most,  and  the  most  zealous  Roman  Catholics." 

He  was  a  casuistical  divine  of  so  much  eminence,  that 
persons  used  to  resort  to  him  to  solve  cases  of  conscientious 
difficulty ;  and  Charles  the  First,  who  was  never  absent  from 
his  sermons,  would  say :  "I  carry  my  ears  to  hear  other 
preachers  ;  but  I  carry  my  conscience  to  hear  Mr.  Sander- 
son, and  to  act  accordingly  :"  and  when,  in  his  last  attend- 
ance, the  king  requested  him  to  "betake  himself  to  the 
writing  cases  of  conscience  for  the  good  of  posterity,"  and  he 
answering  that  "  he  was  now  grown  too  old,  and  unfit  to 
write  cases  of  conscience  ;"  the  king  was  so  bold  with  him 
as  to  say  :  "It  was  the  simplest  (taken  in  the  old  sense) 
answer  he  ever  heard  from  Dr.  Sanderson  ;  for  no  young 
man  ivas  Jit  to  be  a  judge,  or  tvrite  cases  of  conscience. ^^ 
Dr.  Johnson  himself,  it  will  be  remembered  by  the  way,  was 
no  mean  casuist. 

It  is  supposed,  that  Sanderson  wrote  the  Preface  to  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  a  composition  admirable  for  its 
moderation  and  just  reasoning.  But  what  strikes  most  in 
the  lives  of  these  eminent  men  who  passed  their  time  amid 
so  much  trouble,  opposition,  and  danger,  is  the  extraordinary 
spirit  of  kindness  and  humility  with  which  they  were  endued  ; 
truly  showing  us  that  affliction  is  a  divine  diet,  and  that  in 
adversity  more  than  in  prosperity  the  soul  is  confirmed. 
Thus  we  hear  this  pious  bishop  thanking  God,  "  that  He 
hath  made  me  of  a  temper  not  apt  to  provoke  the  meanest 
of  mankind  :"  and  we  read  also  with  what  complacency  he 
took  the  rude  and  violent  conduct  of  the  Parliamentary  sol- 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  155 

diei'S,  when  they  tore  the  Book  of  Prayer  from  him,  "  pre- 
tending to  advise  him  how  God  was  to  be  served  most  ac- 
ceptably." Moreover,  how  beautiful  the  story  of  his  com- 
passion for  the  poor  farmer  that  came  to  him,  and  his  bountiful 
kindness  to  the  poor,  when  he  could  aflbrd  them  aid  :  and  his 
biographer  states,  that  "  his  looks  and  motion  manifested 
affability  and  mildness  ;"  and  speaks  of  him  at  the  last,  as 
"  this  pattern  of  meekness  and  primitive  innocence."  Closely 
must  he  have  followed,  and  in  an  age  of  agitation  and  per- 
sonal vituperation,  the  exhortation  of  his  sweet  contemporary 
Bishop  Hall,  as  quoted  from  St.  Ambrose,  "  Imitate  ye  the 
angels,  who,  though  peers  of  heaven,  yet  are  wont  to  approve 
themselves  rmiiistering  spirits  fo?'  the  jjoorest  of  God's 
saints:  no  spectacle  can  be  more  odious  than  a  proud  pre- 
late." 

Who  can  sufficiently  speak  the  praises  of  Jeremy  Taylor, 
his  universal  learning,  his  charitable  disposition  ;  the  Shak- 
spcare  of  the  Church  of  England,  whose  glory  it  was  to  be 
thought  a  Christian,  and  who  was  a  zealous  son  of  the  Church 
of  England,  "  because  he  judged  her  a  church  the  most 
purely  Christian  of  any  in  the  world  ?"  And  he  ivas  a 
Christian :  such  a  Christian  as  Heber,  and  Wesley,  and 
men  of  piety  in  all  sects,  have  delighted  to  follow  :  and  of 
how  much  eloquent  exhortation  to  religious  doctrine  and  con- 
duct is  a  man  deprived  who  has  not  yet  drawn  from  this 
well  of  purity  and  learning  I  He  and  his  little  fortune  were 
shipwrecked  in  that  great  hurricane  that  overturned  both 
church  and  state  ;  but  in  a  private  corner  of  the  world  he 
was  fed  with  manna  from  heaven.  Ere  this,  it  is  related 
of  his  preaching,  "  he  made  his  hearers  take  him  for  some 
young  angel,  newly  descended  from  the  visions  of  glory  ;" 
and  after  he  was  a  bishop,  we  read,  that  "  his  soul  was  made 
up  of  harmony,  and  he  never  spake  but  he  charmed  his 
hearer."  "  I  believe,"  says  Dr.  Pv.ust,  his  affectionate  friend 
and  chaplain,  "  he  spent  the  greatest  part  of  his  time  in 
heaven  :  his  solemn  hours  of  prayer  took  up  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  life;"  and,  "notwithstanding  his  stupendous 
parts  and  learning,  and  eminency  of  place,  he  had  nothing  in 
him  of  pride  and  humor,  but  was  courteous  and  affable,  and 


156  DR.  JOHxNSON'S  CHURCHxMANSHIP. 

of  easy  access,  and  would  lend  a  ready  ear  to  the  complaints, 
yea,  to  the  impertinencies,  of  the  meanest  persons."  "  The 
Life  of  Christ,''  and  the  "  Holy  Living''  and  "  Holy  Dy- 
ing," are  become  household  books,  most  popular  as  most 
precious :  and  we  can  not  but  think  that  from  these,  and  the 
writings  of  such  like  divines,  Dr.  Johnson's  religious  character 
was  much  assisted  in  its  formation  and  subsequent  growth. 

The  tinsel  of  Sprat  disgusted  him  ;  and  yet,  in  his  memoir 
of  him,  Johnson  speaks  well  of  his  talent.  The  principles 
of  Sprat  were  perhaps  too  much  of  that  kind  attributed  to 
the  Vicar  of  Bray.  He  stood  neuter  at  a  time  when  he 
should  have  declared  for  the  church  :  in  turn  he  eulogized 
Cromwell,  and  spoke  "  manfully"  for  James ;  and  he  had 
to  endure  much  from  villains  who  endeavored  to  implicate 
him  in  a  pretended  conspiracy.  "  Burnet  was  not  favorable 
to  his  memory,"  says  Johnson,  "  for  he  was  jealous  of  the 
congregational  approbation  awarded  him."  As  the  friend  of 
Bishop  Wilkins,  and  author  of  the  "  History  of  the  Pwoyal 
Society,"  as  v/ell  as  of  the  "  Life  of  Cowley,"  he  is  best 
known,  while  his  "  Sermons"  are  almost  forgotten. 

Hammond  and  Barrow  he  thought  "  involved,"  but  still 
both  of  these  are  great  names  in  the  church  ;  the  one  argu- 
mentative and  close,  the  other  profound,  and  showing  a  vast 
reach  of  mind,  prolix  as  regards  the  repetition  of  hard  and 
earnest  words.  The  early  part  of  Hammond's  life,  when 
incumbent  of  Penshurst,  where  he  became,  according  to 
Bishop  Fell,  a  perfect  model  of  the  English  country  parson, 
was  pleasant  and  undisturbed  ;  but  after  that  he  had  become 
the  steady  and  affectionate  chaplain  of  Charles  the  First,  he 
became  involved  in  the  troubles,  anxieties,  and  deprivations 
that  awaited  the  faithful  adherents  of  that  unfortunate  mon- 
arch. His  principles  were  strict  Church  of  England,  and 
when  he  saw  the  Romish  missionaries  successful  in  drawing 
many  "  to  a  pompous  and  imperious  church  abroad  from  an 
afflicted  one  at  home,"  then  he  wrote  able  treatises  against 
them  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  when  the  errors  of  con- 
flicting Protestant  sects,  by  the  charm  of  novelty,  drew  in 
m^any  of  the  rash  and  ignorant,  then  his  exertions  were 
directed  against  that  opposite  quarter  of  schismatic  action. 


DR.  JOHxNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  157 

Like  Dr.  Johnson,  he  wrote  whole  articles  without  ever 
raising  his  pen  from  the  paper  till  they  were  finished  :  in 
such  manner  he  wrote  his  famous  tract  on  Episcopacy,  begun 
after  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  sent  to  press  the  next  morn- 
ing :  and  also  his  tract  on  Scandal,  commenced  at  eleven 
o'clock,  and  finished  before  he  Avent  to  bed.  His  best  known 
work  is  his  Aymotations,  so  frequently  consulted  by  all  com- 
mentators :  and  we  are  told  that  his  elocution  was  free  and 
graceful ;  King  Charles,  no  mean  judge,  giving  him  the 
character  of  being  *'  the  most  natural  orator  he  had  ever 
heard."  The  bitter  and  fierce  Presbyterian,  Cheynell,  he 
who  delivered  that  barbarous  oration  over  the  remains  of 
Chilling  worth,  was  his  opponent ;  whose  mind  was  the  re- 
verse of  the  rational,  calm,  and  manly  one  of  this  learned 
doctor,  whose  pure  and  active  spirit,  we  are  informed,  was 
becomingly  lodged  in  a  body  remarkable  for  beauty  and 
strength. 

Hammond  just  lived  to  witness  the  Restoration,  but  seem- 
ed unwilling  to  exchange  his  adversity  and  affliction  for  the 
coming  events  of  joy  and  prosperity.  His  serene  mind 
jumped  not  at  the  advantages  of  a  high  station  and  large 
responsibility  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  said,  '<  I  never  saw  the 
time  in  all  my  life  wherein  I  could  so  cheerfully  say  my 
Nunc  Dimittis  as  now."  Soon  he  died  a  saint-like  death, 
but  a  few  minutes  before  his  departure  breathing  out  these 
words,  "Lord,  make  haste  I" 

Barrow,  whom  the  historian  Hallam  esteems  to  be  second 
in  learning  only  to  Taylor,  ought  to  have  been  a  prime  favor- 
ite with  Dr.  Johnson.  He  was,  corporeally  and  mentally, 
the  stalwart  scholar.  So  pugnacious  was  he  at  school,  that 
his  father  used  to  say,  that  if  it  pleased  God  to  deprive  him 
of  either  of  his  sons,  he  hoped  it  would  be  Isaac  !  Unlike 
Hammond,  the  early  part  of  his  life  was  hardy  and  adventur- 
ous. He  traveled  extensively,  and  at  Constantinople,  the 
See  of  Chrysostom,  he  read  the  works  of  that  "  golden  mouth," 
whom  he  preferred  to  all  the  other  Fathers.  In  this  voyage 
his  fighting  qualities  were  called  into  vigorous  action,  for  the 
ship  was  attacked  by  a  corsair,  and  Barrow  left  not  the  deck 
till  the  pirate  was  beaten  back.      On  his  return,  the  ship  in 


158  DR.  JOFINSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

which  he  sailed  took  fire,  and,  with  its  cargo,  was  utterly 
consumed,  but  no  lives  were  lost.  He  visited  Paris,  Florence, 
liCghorn,  Smyrna,  Constantinople,  Venice,  Germany,  Holland, 
&c.,  a  grand  tour  indeed  in  those  times.  He  possessed  great 
learning,  derived  from  the  best  sources,  and  his  eloquence  in 
the  pulpit  was  brilliant.  He  had  one  fault,  "  if  it  deserves 
that  name,"  says  Dr.  Pope,  "  he  was  generally  too  long  in 
his  sermons  ;"  he  preached  three  hours  and  a  half  on  bounty 
to  the  poor ;  "  and  now,"  he  adds,  "  I  have  spoken  as  ill  of 
him  as  the  worst  of  his  enemies  could,  if  ever  he  had  any.^^ 
Charles  the  Second  called  him  "  an  unfair  preacher,"  because 
he  left  nothing  for  those  that  came  after  him  to  say  ;  in  fact, 
he  liked  to  treat  thoroughly  on  any  subject  he  took  in  hand, 
He  was  a  man  of  the  purest  morals,  and  gentlest  manners, 
ever  despising  riches  and  honors,  and  such  things  as  might 
have  fallen  to  his  lot  in  these  more  prosperous  times,  and 
which  so  many  other  men  covet  and  desire.  He  was  care- 
less and  slovenly  in  his  person,  even  in  the  pulpit :  very  se- 
vere to  himself,  "unmercifully  cruel  to  a  lean  carcass,  not 
allowing  it  sufficient  meat  or  sleep  :"  and  at  last,  though 
Master  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  yet  he  died  in  mean 
lodgings  at  a  saddler's  near  Charing  Cross,  an  old,  low,  ill- 
built  house,  which  he  had  used  for  several  years,  continuing  the 
same  erudite  and  humble-minded  person  all  through  life.  His 
treatise  on  the  Pope's  Supremacy,  and  his  Ser7no7is  and  Ex- 
positiojts,  are  of  lasting  fame.  If  Johnson  had  been  questioned 
on  the  merits  of  these  divines,  his  criticisms  would,  we  may 
think,  have  done  them  ample  justice  :  and  it  is  not  fair  to 
receive,  as  his  judgment,  an  extemporaneous  conversation, 
probably  inaccurately  reported. 

Come  we  to  a  trio  of  "immortals."  When  talking  of  the 
Irish  clergy,  he  said,  "  Swift  was  a  man  of  great  parts,  and 
the  instrument  of  much  good  to  his  country  ;  Berkeley  was  a 
profound  scholar,  as  well  as  a  man  of  fine  imagination ;  but 
Ussher,"  he  said,  "  was  the  great  luminary  of  the  Irish 
church  :  and  a  greater,"  he  added,  "  no  church  could  boast 
of,  at  least  in  modern  times." 

Unlike  Jeremy  Taylor,  who  "was  a  man  long  before  he 
was  of  age,"  Swift  was  backward  in  learning  during  his  early 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  159 

youth.  The  history  of  this  extraordinary  man,  witli  a  char- 
acter and  genius  most  puzzling,  need  not  be  entered  upon  here, 
since  it  is  given  by  Johnson  himself  in  a  volume  so  easily  pro- 
cured. His  "  Church  of  England  ]Mau"  was,  in  some  degree, 
a  picture  of  himself  His  "Tale  of  a  Tub"  of  which  Bishop 
Sraalridge,  when  Dr.  Sacheverel  complimented  him  on  being 
the  author,  said,  "  Not  all  that  you  and  I  have  in  the  world, 
nor  all  that  ever  we  shall  have,  should  hire  me  to  write  The 
Tale  of  a  Tub'' — of  this  book.  Dr.  Johnson  doubts  whether 
Swift  was  really  the  author,  although,  when  the  belief  of  it-S 
authorship  stood  in  they  way  of  his  becoming  a  bishop,  he 
coutradicted  it  not.  Johnson  says,  speaking  of  the  style, 
"  What  is  true  of  that,  is  not  true  of  any  thing  else  which  he 
has  written."  It  is  certain,  however,  that  it  is  his  produc- 
tion. 

To  his  duties,  as  a  clergyman,  he  was  attentive,  and  put 
many  things  in  order  in  his  church  which  were  before  neglect- 
ed. He  complained  of  himself,  that  from  the  time  of  his  po- 
litical controversies  "  he  could  only  preach  pamphlets,"  a  com- 
plaint, observes  Johnson,  which  was  '*  unreasonably  severe," 
if  we  may  judge  from  those  sermons  which  have  been  print- 
ed. The  suspicions  of  his  irreligion,  we  are  told,  arose  from 
his  dread  of  hypocrisy,  and  thus,  in  London,  he  went  to  early 
prayers,  lest  he  should  be  seen  at  church  ;  and  read  prayers 
to  his  servants  every  morning  "  with  such  dextrous  secrecy, 
that  Dr.  Delany  was  six  months  in  his  house  before  he  knew 
it."  "  He  was  not  only  careful,"  continues  Johnson,  "  to 
hide  the  good  which  he  did,  but  willingly  incurred  the  suspi- 
cion of  evil  which  he  did  not ;"  and  it  is  somewhat  disingenu- 
ously added,  the  sentiment  being  open  to  much  animadver- 
sion, "he  forgot  what  himself  had  formerly  asserted,  that' 
hypocrisy  is  less  mischievous  than  open  impiety."  We  must 
not  suppose  from  this  remark  that  his  memory  was  deficient, 
for,  though  Pope  says, 

"  Where  beams  of  warm  imagination  play, 
The  memory's  soft  figures  melt  away." 

He  was  blessed  with  an  astounding  memory  ;   so  much  so,  as 
to  be  able  to  repeat  the  lines  of  Hudibras  from  the  beginning 


160  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

to  the  end.  He  was  a  man  of  great  humanity,  but  always 
fidgety  during  meal  times  ;  the  meat  was  always  too  much 
or  too  little  done,  or  the  servants  offended  in  a  manner  not 
perceptible  to  the  rest  of  the  company,  nor  did  he  spare  the 
servants  of  others.  Once  when  he  dined  alone  with  the 
Earl  of  Orrery,  he  said  of  one  that  waited  in  the  room, 
"  That  man  has,  since  we  sat  at  table,  committed  fifteen 
faults."  Lord  Orrery  had  not  perceived  them.  Yet  after 
dinner,  he  was  himself  again  :  and,  always  temperate  in 
drinking,  the  feast  of  reason  and  the  flow  of  soul  were  in  fall 
exuberance  :  his  wit  and  learning,  his  humor  and  warmth 
of  affection,  informing,  extracting  from,  and  winning  all.  It 
is  singular  that  he,  our  English  Rabelais,  whose  hon  iiioU 
exist  in  constant  conversational  quotation  to  this  day,  and 
whose  name  is  so  familiar,  as  connected  with  dry  and  droll 
sayings,  among  members  of  nearly  all  classes  of  people,  should 
himself  have  "stubbornly  resisted  any  tendency  to  laughter," 
and  possessed  a  countenance  <'  sour  and  severe,  which  he 
seldom  softened  by  any  appearance  of  gayety,"  Mobile  his 
writings  abound  in  ludicrous  ideas,  and  his  reputation  for 
humor  and  wit  was  at  once  universally  famous  and  infamous. 
Bishop  Berkeley  was  indeed  a  profound  scholar,  and  one 
who  has  adorned  the  scientific  character  of  this  country. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  acquainted  Math  almost  all  branches 
of  human  knowledge,  and  his  character  commanded  the  respect 
and  love  of  all  who  knew  him.  Pope,  his  constant  friend, 
describes  him  as  possessed  "  of  every  virtue  under  heaven." 
His  disinterestedness  in  endeavoring  to  establish  a  College  in 
the  Bermuda  Islands  for  the  conversion  of  the  American 
savages  to  Christianity,  and  his  patience  in  waiting  in  vain 
.for  the  promised  aid  of  Parliament,  were  most  laudable. 
Johnson,  who  imperfectly  apprehended  the  bishop's  subtle 
reasoning,  being  in  company  with  a  gentleman  who  thought 
fit  to  maintain  Dr.  Berkeley's  ingenious  philosophy,  that  noth- 
ing exists  but  as  perceived  by  some  mind  :  when  the  gentle- 
man was  going  away,  Johnson  said  to  him,  "  Pray,  sir,  don't 
leave  us  ;  for  we  may  perhaps  forget  to  think  of  you,  and  then 
you  'will  cease  to  exist''  Another  time  he  confuted  Berkeley's 
idea  of  non-existence  of  matter,  by  stamping  vigorously  on 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  161 

the  ground ;  and,  in  short,  he  seems  to  have  been  some- 
what of  the  opinion  so  flippantly  expressed  by  the  modern 
poet, 

"  When  Bishop  Berkeley  said  there  was  no  matter, 
In  truth  it  was  no  matter  what  he  said."  * 

Certainly  his  hypothesis,  that  those  things  which  are  called 
sensible  material  objects  are  not  external,  but  exist  in  the 
mind,  is  an  enigma  to  the  non-metaphysical  student,  and  is 
supported  by  an  ingenuity  which  it  is  difficult  to  refute, 
although  we  think  we  can  so  readily  deny  its  truth.  Let  us 
ask  ourselves.  What  is  darkness?  What  is  death?  We 
may  answer  :  The  absence  of  light ;  the  absence  of  life  ;  but 
can  we  consider  either  darkness  or  death  as  real  beings  ?  Can 
the  absence  of  any  thing  have  a  real  existence  ?  or  nothing  be 
as  real  in  natural  existence  as  any  thingl. 

Bishop  Berkeley's  opinion  of  Atterbury,  we  may  understand 
sooner  than  the  arcana  of  his  metaphysics,  namely,  that  he 
was  ''•  a  most  learned,  fine  gentleman,  who  under  the  softest 
and  politest  appearance  concealed  the  most  turbulent  ambi- 
tion." 

Archbishop  Ussher  was  another  of  those  great  and  good 
men  who  were  sorely  afflicted  during  political  and  ecclesias- 
tical periods  of  trouble  and  dismay.  He  was  born  near  the 
time  that  the  excellent  Sir  Henry  Sidney  wrote  to  Queen 
EUzabeth,  "that  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  where  Christ  is 
professed,  there  is  not  a  church"  (he  means  that  of  Ireland) 
•'in  so  miserable  a  case  :"  yet,  when  he  was  but  eighteen 
years  of  age,  at  his  father's  death,  he  made  over  the  paternal 
estate,  which  was  considerable,  to  his  younger  brother,  and 
himself  studied  for  the  ministry  of  the  church.  He  was 
always  of  a  Calvinistic  turn  of  mind,  caught  from  the  prevail- 
ing temper  of  the  age  :  his  notions  also  of  church  government 
verging  toward  Presbyterianism,  his  enemies,  taking  advantage 
of  this,  sought  to  undermine  his  credit  with  James  the  First. 
But  no,  he  was  always  a  steady  Church  of  England  man, 
supporting  the  kingly  supremacy  ;   and  on  coming  to  England 

=*  Is  not  this  an  old  play  of  words  borrowed  from  a  paper  called  the 
Connoisseur  ? 


162  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

on  one  occasion,  he  was  furnished  with  testimonials  to  the 
king  by  the  Lord  Deputy  and  Council,  in  which  he  was  de- 
scribed as  "abounding  in  goodness,  and  his  life  and  doctrine 
so  agreeable,  that  those  who  agree  not  with  him  are  constrain- 
ed to  admire  him."  He  wrote  against  the  great  republican 
poet,  Milton  :  he  endeavored  to  prevent  Charles  the  First 
from  sacrificing  Lord  Strafford,  and  was  the  affectionate  friend 
and  pious  counselor  of  that  lamented  nobleman  to  the  last : 
he  carried  the  message  to  Laud  by  which  the  archbishop,  from 
his  prison  window,  was  enabled,  with  uplifted  hands,  to  bless 
Strafford  on  his  way  to  death  :  and  he  was  in  such  an  agony 
at  the  sight  of  King  Charles  on  the  scaffold,  as  to  be  unable 
to  bear  the  affecting  scene  any  longer.*  These  are  circum- 
stances in  his  history  that  would  serve  to  exalt  him  in  the 
eyes  of  Johnson  ;  and  most  steadily,  even  to  the  spoiling  of 
his  goods,  and  the  extreme  hazard  of  his  person,  did  this 
evangelical  man  of  God  stand  by  the  church  and  his  king. 
We  learn  from  Evelyn's  diary,  that  he  once  said  to  that  even- 
minded  man,  "  that  the  church  would  be  destroyed  by  secta- 
ries, who  would,  in  all  likelihood,  bring  in  Popery."  He 
was  a  supporter  of  the  strenuous  rule  of  Vincent  of  Lirins, 
for  he  says,  "  We  bring  in  no  new  faith,  no  new  church. 
That  which  in  the  time  of  the  ancient  Fathers  was  account- 
ed to  be  truly  and  properly  Catholic,  viz.,  that  which  was 
believed  every  tvhere,  always,  and  by  all :  that  in  the  suc- 
ceeding ages  hath  evermore  been  preserved,  and  is  in  this  day 
entirely  professed  in  our  church."  Well  would  it  be  if  our 
modern  evangelicals  (so  called),   who  so  cordially  give  the 

*  At  a  future  time,  when  he  was  lying  ill  in  his  retirement,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Pai'liament  came  to  visit  him,  to  whom  he  said  in  a  solemn 
manner  :  "  Sir,  you  see  I  am  very  weak,  and  can  not  expect  to  live 
many  hours.  You  are  returning  to  the  Parliament — /  am  going  to  God. 
I  charge  you  to  tell  them  from  me,  that  I  know  they  are  in  the  wrong, 
and  have  dealt  very  injuriously  with  the  king."  He  always  commem- 
orated this  sad  event  by  an  anniversary  celebration  of  funeral  rites. 

The  above  anecdote  brings  to  one's  mind  another,  of  the  pious  Arch- 
bishop Leighton.  When  a  young  man,  and  a  Presbyterian,  he  attend- 
ed a  synod  where  the  clergy  were  asked  if  they  preached  to  the  times  ? 
He  being  accused  of  rather  not  doing  so.  He  replied,  "  Surely,  if  all 
of  you  preach  to  the  times,  might  not  one  poor  brother  be  allowed  to 
preach  for  eternity?-' 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  163 

right  hand  of  welcome  and  fellowship  to  Archbishop  Ussher, 
would  also  embrace,  and  act  according  to  this  large-hearted 
and  unsectarian  rule. 

The  fact  is,  Ussher  was  well  acquainted  with  the  writings 
of  the  early  Fathers.  We  are  told,  that  suspecting  the  ac- 
curacy of  a  work  put  forward  by  a  Roman  Catholic  divine 
(Stapleton),  which  was  accounted  a  book  of  very  high  repute, 
he  resolved  to  read  through  all  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  ; 
and  this  laborious  task  he  commenced  at  the  age  of  twenty, 
and,  persevering  with  a  certain  portion  daily,  completed  it  at 
the  time  he  was  thirty-eight.  This  was  of  such  use  to  him, 
that  it  bore  him  in  safety  through  a  controversy  with  a  dis- 
tinguished Jesuit,  who  courteously  styled  him  "  the  most 
learned  of  the  non-Catholics." 

He  w^as  put  forward  by  the  clergy  to  intercede  with  Crom- 
well for  a  Avithdrawal  of  his  cruel  and  arbitrary  declaration 
issued  in  1655,  but  was  unsuccessful,  Cromwell  being  advised 
by  his  council,  "that  it  teas  ?iot  safe  to  grant  liberty  of  con- 
science to  those  men  whom  he  deemed  restless  and  implacable 
enemies  to  his  government."  This  refusal  greatly  affected 
the  humane  archbishop ;  and  to  his  friends,  who  awaited  his 
return,  he  broke  out  in  severe  invectives  against  the  Pro- 
tector, and  mournfully  predicted  the  advantage  which  Popery 
would  draw  from  the  confusion  ui  church  and  state.  It  is 
just  to  record,  that,  on  his  death,  which  was  calm  and  re- 
signed, Cromwell  ordered  that  the  body  should  be  deposited, 
with  public  honors,  in  Westminster  Abbey ;  and,  on  the  day 
of  the  funeral,  it  was  met  by  the  clergy  and  a  great  con- 
course of  the  people,  who  accompanied  it,  with  weeping,  to 
the  abbey. 

Burnet  says,  that  "he  was  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  and 
best  men  that  the  age,  or  perhaps  the  world,  has  produced;" 
and  describes  him  as  expressing  "in  his  conversation  the  true 
simplicity  of  a  Christian  ;  for  passion,  pride,  self-will,  or  the 
love  of  the  world,  seemed  not  to  be  so  much  as  in  his  nature. 
He  had  a  way  of  gaining  people's  hearts,  and  of  touching  their 
consciences,  that  looked  like  somewhat  of  the  Apostolic  age 
revived."  He  effected  much  for  the  Irish  church,  in  con- 
junction with  Bramhall ;  and  was,  indeed,  not  only  its  lumin- 


164  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

ary,  but  of  the  world  also,  probably  to  the  end  of  the  time  of 
the  Christian  dispensation.  We  can  not  help  observing  what 
pure,  pious,  and  memorable  names  are  united  in  deep  lament- 
ation on  the  death  of  Charles  the  First ;  and  we  can 
imagine  that  Ussher  himself  might  have  mournfully  and  era- 
phatically  exclaimed, 

"  I  saw  a  royal  form  with  eye  upturn'd, 

Rising  from  furnace  of  affliction  free, 

And  knew  that  brow  of  deep  serenity, 
Whereon,  methought,  a  crowm  of  glory  burn'd, 
With  a  calm  smile,  as  if  the  death-cry  turned 

On  his  freed  ear  to  seraph  sounds  on  high !"  * 

As  commentators.  Dr.  Johnson  recommended  Lowth  and 
Patrick  on  the  Old  Testament,  and  Hammond  on  the  New. 
The  attempt  of  the  former  to  show  a  manifest  conformity  be- 
tween the  prophetical  style  and  that  of  the  books  supposed 
to  be  metrical,  has  met  with  the  approbation  of  the  learned ; 
and  the  observations  of  Patrick  are  sound  and  full,  frequently 
quoted  by  Bishop  Mant  and  Dr.  D'Oyley  in  their  more  com- 
prehensive commentary  on  the  Scriptures.  It  is  gratifying 
to  find  that  Bishop  Patrick's  "  Parable  of  the  Pilgrim"  is 
becoming  a  popular  book,  for  it  is  at  once  entertaining  and 
instructive.  Hammond's  Annotations  on  the  Psalms  are  very 
valuable,  and  so  are  those  on  the  New  Testament ;  but  he 
is  thought  to  be  mistaken,  in  some,  of  his  criticisms,  by  Dr. 
Doddridge,  who  observes,  "  he  finds  the  Gnostics  every  where." 
This  leads  him  to  consider  Simon  Magus  as  the  "  Man  of 
Sin,"  and  not  to  regard  several  denunciations  as  applying  to 
the  Church  of  Rome.  We  may  not  believe  that  Doddridge 
can  determine  this  point  more  than  Hammond,  and  surely 
the  last  is  the  most  learned  commentator. 

On  another  occasion.  Dr.  Johnson  commended  Whitby's 
Commentary.  This  is  usually  accounted  to  be  the  best 
upon  the  New  Testament  that  is  existent  in  the  English 
language.  He  can  not  view  the  Church  of  Rome  as  con- 
nected with  the  Man  of  Sin,  but  differs  from  Hammond,  in 
accounting  it  to  be  the  Jewish  nation  with  their  high-priest 
and  Sanhedrim.     He  ofiers  no  commentary  on  the  Book  of 

*  Isaac  Williams. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  165 

Revelations,  very  wisely  saying,  that  he  can  not  understand 
<'  the  intendment  of  the  prophecies."  It  is  to  be  observed, 
that  Calvin  also  offered  no  written  comment  on  the  Revela- 
lion  ;  but  Dr.  South  went  too  far  in  his  love  of  wit,  when 
he  averred,  "That  book  either  finds  a  man  mad,  or  makes 
him  so." 

In  reference  to  individual  divines  in  more   chronological 
order,  we  find  Dr.  Johnson  speaking  favorably,  as  all  relig- 
ious persons  must  do,  of  Thomas  a  Kempis.      It  "  must  be  a 
good  book,"  he  observed,  "  as  the  world  has  opened  its  arms 
to  receive  it.      It  is  said  to  have  been  printed,  in  one  lan- 
guage or  other,  as  many  times  as  there  have  been  months  since 
it  first  came  out.      I  was   always  struck  with  this  sentence 
in  it,  '  Be  not  angry  that  you  can  not  make  others  as  you 
wish  them  to  be,  since  you  can  not  make  yourself  as  you 
wish  to  be.' "      Yes,  and  of  the  same  veritably  catholic,  but 
un-Rornan  Catholic  spirit,  is  the  following  admirable  sentence, 
which  Dr.  Johnson,  v.^ho  liked  not  bitterness  in  controversy, 
would  also  have  loved  :    "What  will  it  avail  thee  to  dispute 
profoundly  of  the  Trinity,  if  thou  be  void  of  humanity,  and 
thereby  displeasing  to  the  Trinity  ?     High  words,  surely,  make 
a  man  neither  holy  nor  just ;  but  a  virtuous  life  maketh  him 
dear  to  God.      I  had  rather  feel  comininction,  tlian  under- 
stand the  definition  thereof.     If  thou  didst  know  the  whole 
Bible  by  heart,  and  the  sayings  of  all  the  philosophers,  what 
would  all  that  profit  thee,  without  charity,  and  the  grace  of 
God.?"      Violence  in  controversy,  on  ever  so  just  a  side,  is 
always  impolitic,  as  well  as  unseemly ;  hence,  very  trite  was 
the  observation  of  George  the  Third  to  Dr.  Johnson,  on  the 
difierence  between  Lowth  and  Warburton,  "  Why  truly," 
said  the  king,  "  when  once  it  comes  to  calling  names,  argu- 
ment is  pretty  well  at  an  end." 

Thomas  a  Kempis' s  book  is  indeed  glorious  throughout,  so 
filled  with  self-denial,  and  so  spiritual.  It  is  said  to  be  the 
book  of  largest  circulation  next  to  the  Bible,  and  to  be  found 
in  nearly  all  countries.  A  Wesleyan  Methodist  once  said  to 
to  me,  "  Sir,  I  owe  my  conversion  to  the  reading  the  book  of 
Thomas  a  Kempis  ;"  but  he  did  not  join  the  communion  of 
that  church  of  which  his  converter  was  so  great  an  orna- 


1G6  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

ment ;  thus  wisely  showing"  that  we  are  not  bound  to  tie 
ourselves  to  those  who  may  first  serve  to  imbue  our  minds 
with  principles  of  religion.  Strange  that  Dr.  Johnson  should 
not  have  more  highly  esteemed  Bossuet,  Massillon,  and  Bour- 
daloue  ;  he  would  not  allow  them  "to  go  round  the  world." 
And  quite  as  strange,  yet  worthily  liberal,  is  it,  to  find  the 
Presbyterian  Boswell  entering  his  strojigest  protest  against 
Dr.  Johnson's  judgment  in  regard  to  the  former:  "Bossuet," 
he  says,  "  I  hold  to  be  one  of  the  first  luminaries  of  religion 
and  literature.  If  there  are  ivlio  do  7iot  read  him,  it  is  full 
time  they  shoidd  begi7i." 

Of  Grotius,  the  religious  and  political  hero  of  Holland,  Dr. 
Johnson  entertained  a  high  opinion.  He  classed  him  among 
the  great  men  who  had  embraced  the  Christian  religion  as 
the  truth,  and  thus  given  an  additional  evidence  in  its  favor, 
"  Grotius  was  an  acute  man,"  he  said,  "  a  lawyer,  a  man 
accustomed  to  examine  evidence,  and  he  was  convinced." 
Of  his  writings,  he  said,  "  I  would  recommend  to  every  man 
whose  faith  is  yet  unsettled,  Ge.otius,  Dr.  Pearson,  and  Dr. 
Clarke."  And  again  :  "  Richard  Baxter  commends  a  treatise 
by  Grotius,  '  De  Satisfactione  Christi  ;'  I  have  never  read 
it,  but  I  intend  to  read  it ;  and  you  (Boswell)  may  read  it." 
And  when  recommending  an  old  friend  (De  Groot)  to  the 
benevolence  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Vyse,  he  writes,  "  He  is  by 
several  descents  the  nephew  of  Hugo  Grotius,  of  him  from 
whom  perhaps,  every  man  of  learning  has  learned  some- 
thing. Let  it  not  be  said,  that  in  a7iy  lettered  country  a 
nephew  of  Grotius  asked  a  charity  and  tvas  refused. 

A  more  comprehensive  mind  than  that  of  Grotius  never 
existed  ;  and  this  comprehensiveness  founded,  not  on  vague, 
iatitudinarian,  or  reckless  opinions,  but  on  the  basis  of  learn- 
ing the  most  profound,  and  charity  the  most  enlightened  and 
sincere.  It  is  creditable  to  find  his  works  studied  at  our  En- 
glish universities,  and  thus  our  age  may  well  be  congratulated 
on  its  retrospective  character.  With  his  political  life, 
whether  as  occupying  a  high  post  in  the  government  of  his 
country,  or  as  embassador  from  Sweden  to  the  court  of 
France,  seconding  the  views  of  the  renowned  Swedish  Grand 
Chancellor,  Oxenstiern,  and  disliked  by  Cardinal  Richelieu, 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  1C7 

we  have  little  now  to  do  ;  it  is  in  his  religious  character  that 
we  must  regard,  him.  His  main  aspirations  were  after  an 
universal,  an  ancient,  and  a  loving  church.  From  every 
school  of  philosophy,  and  from  every  society  in  the  world  of 
opinion,  he  would  gather  some  important  truth,  while  he 
rejected  much  prominent  or  latent  error  ;  and  thus  to  know 
and  discern  the  seminal  principle  of  every  prophet  and  leader 
of  a  sect,  was,  with  him,  to  gather  the  wisdom  of  the 
world.  Such  a  man,  with  a  mind  of  this  universal  and 
truthful  grasp,  is  often  looked  upon,  by  the  earnest  and  nar- 
row-minded, as  one  heedless  of  principle  and  undecided. 
Neither  Owen  nor  Baxter  could  appreciate  the  elevation  or 
amplitude  of  his  religious  views,  because  '•'  he  endeavored  to 
reunite  the  fragments  of  truth  scattered  among  all  parties — 
and  thus  had  the  honor  to  displease  every  party  that  wished 
to  make  him  its  exclusive  proselyte."  =^  It  could  not  be  de- 
ciphered, whether  he  were  Arminian  or  Calvinist,  or  even 
Papist;  and  hence  the  lines, 

"  Papists,  Lutherans,  Arrainians, 
Arians,  Calvinists,  Socinians, 
All  contend  for  Grotius'  name, 
AU  conspire  to  raise  his  fame." 

This  is  honorable  testimony  indeed  ;  and  we  read,  that  he 
was  disposed  to  conciliate  all  the  pious  Roman  Catholics,  as 
well  as  the  Protestants,  and  the  more  because  others  were 
endeavoring  to  augment  ecclesiastical  divisions. 

It  may  be  well  to  give  an  extract  or  two  from  his  admi- 
rable plea  for  ecclesiastical  peace,  which  furnished  Bossuet 
and  Wake  with  some  of  their  best  hints  on  the  project  of 
harmonizing  the  Galilean  and  British  churches,  reported  at 
the  end  of  Mosheim's  Ecclesiastical  History.  He  says  that, 
after  receiving  many  lessons  from  persons  who  held  a  great 
variety  of  doctrines  on  religious  subjects,  "  I  early  felt  the 
importance  of  our  Saviour's  counsel,  that  all  who  would  be 
called  after  His  name,  and  who  would  enjoy  beatitude  through 
His  mediation,  should  be  of  one  spirit,  as  He  and  His  Father 

*  Barham :  who  says,  "the  religion  of  Grotius,"  from  its  toleration, 
''became  a  problem  to  many,  which  Baxter  endeavored  in  vain  to 
solve." 


1G8  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

were  one.  Nor  of  one  spirit  only  so  far  as  charity  is  con- 
cerned, but  also  as  respects  the  communion  of  faith  and  the 
bond  of  discipline.  For  the  church  is,  or  otight  to  be  o)ie, 
and  one  body  I'' 

Again:  "At  length  I  understood  more  fully,  both  from 
the  books  and  the  conversations  of  our  elders,  that  men  had 
arisen  who  stated  that  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  Protest- 
ant differed  altogether  in  principle  no  less  than  in  practice  ; 
and  that  these  not  merely  deserted  the  ancient  community 
without  endeavoring  to  bring  about  reconciliation  by  the  re- 
moval of  ungrateful  abuses,  but  some,  even  before  their  ex- 
communication, instituted  7iovel  congregations,  ivhich  they 
ventured  to  nominate  churches,  and  in  these  appointed  new- 
fashioned  presbyteries,  and  administered  irregular  sacraments, 
and  that  in  many  places  against  all  the  edicts  of  kings  and 
of  bishops,  saying,  forsooth,  by  way  of  defense,  that  they  had 
authority  frmn  heaven  like  the  apostles  of  old,  a7id  that 
they  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men.'''  How  often  was 
it  the  case  with  our  own  Puritans,  that  they  laid  claim  to 
sources  of  power  which  never  could  be  investigated,  and  thus 
the  well-known  pertinent  answer  of  Cromwell  to  the  inquir- 
ing Quaker  was  richly  deserved. 

Grotius  complained  of  the  numerous  sects  of  dissenters. 
"  So  many  new  dissenters  sprung  up  every  day,  that  no  man 
alive  would  undertake  to  number  or  count  them.  And  as 
this  new  brood  is  exceeding  fruitful,  as  every  one  believes  he 
has  as  good  a  right  to  coin  his  own  creed  as  his  neighbors 
before  him,  it  is  probable  that  innumerable  schismatics  will 
yet  arise."  And  how  grand  is  his  calm  resolve  :  *'  All  this 
displeased  me  beyond  measure,  especially  when  I  saw  that 
these  new  parties  carried  their  vote  rather  by  riotous  clamor 
than  by  any  solid  argument;  and  so  I  turned  me  to  the 
reading  of  such  authors  who  live  aj)art  in  divine  commu- 
nions, devoting  their  talent  rather  to  heal  than  to  aggra- 
vate our  clissensio7isy 

Erasmus,  who  was  in  much  the  counterpart  of  Grotius, 
ridicules  the  number  of  sects,  and  their  flimsy  quiddities  and 
reasonings,  as  existent  in  the  Romish  church,  such  as  the 
Reahsts,  the  Nominalists,  the  Thomists.  the  Albertists,  the 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  169 

Occamists,  the  Scotists,=^  &c. ;  "  in  each  of  which  there  is  so 
much  of  deep  learning,  so  much  of  unfathomable  difficulty,  that 
I  believe  the  Apostles  themselves  would  stand  in  need  of  a  new- 
illuminating  spirit  if  they  were  to  engage  in  any  controversy 
with  these  new  divines."  These  would  maintain  it  to  be  a 
less  aggravating  fault  to  kill  a  hundred  men,  than  for  a  poor 
cobbler  to  set  a  stitch  on  the  Sabbath  day  ;  these  entertain 
one  with  all  kinds  of  notions,  formaUties,  and  abstrusities, 
when  the  Apostles  baptized  all  nations  without  ever  teach- 
ing what  was  the  fonnal,  ^naterial,  efficient,  and  Jitial  cause 
of  Baptism  ;  they  administered  the  Holy  Sacrament,  and 
yet  could  give  no  answer  to  the  terminus  a  quo,  and  the 
terminus  ad  quem,  in  the  nature  of  Transubstantiation.f 
So  difficult  is  it,  ivithin  or  out  of  the  pale  of  the  church, 
to  keep  men  from  setting  up  their  own  opinions  as  of  first 
importance,  and  to  preserve  them  in  the  fold  of  a  large  and 
loving  church,  without  peculiarities,  and  without  divisions. 

Grotius  expected,  we  are  told,  that  his  works,  which  were 
compiled  solely  with  a  view  to  promote  union  among  Chris- 
tians, would  procure  him  many  enemies  ;  and  he  said,  on 
this  occasion,  "  that  for  persons  to  endeavor  to  make  man- 
kind live  in  peace  was  commendable  ;  that  they  might  indeed 
expect  a  recompense  from  the  blessed  peace-maker,  but  that 
they  had  great  reason  to  apprehend  the  same  fate  with  those 
who,  attempting  to  part  two  combatants,  receive  blows  from 
both  ;  but  if  it  should  so  happen,  I  shall  comfort  myself 
with  the  example  of  him  who  said,  '  If  I  please  men,  I  am 
not  the  servant  of  Christ.'  " 

Archbishop  Bramhall$  nobly  defends  Grotius  against  the 
insinuations  and  accusations  of  Baxter,  to  the  effect  that 
under  pretense  of  reconciling  the  Protestant  churches  with 
the  Roman  church,  he  acted  "  the  coj^-duck,  willingly,  or 
unwillingly,  to  lead  Protestants  into  Popery."  But  such 
was  far  from  the  case,  as  proved  by  the  archbishop  in  oppo- 
sing Baxter's  feeble  suppositions  on  this  matter  of  Grotian 
designs.     Grotius  and  Baxter,  we  understand,  both  prosecuted 

*  Panegyric  upon  Folly,  5th  edit.  p.  111. 

t  See  the  whole  passage,  p.  Ill,  112. 

X  Bramhall's  Works.  Oxford  edit.  vol.  iii   p   50.5,  &c. 

H 


170  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

the  same  design  of  reconciliation,  but  Mr.  Baxter's  object  was 
the  British  world,  and  that  of  Grotius  was  the  Christian 
world  ;  and  the  archbishop,  speaking  of  three  great  writers, 
one  of  whom  was  Grotius,  says,  "  I  do  prefer  these  three  be- 
fore a  hundred  yawning  wishers  for  peace,  while  they  do 
nothing  that  tendeth  to  the  procuring  of  peace."  And  he 
gives  this  opinion,  which  may  not  be  quite  so  applicable  to 
the  present  times  :  "  Excuse  me  for  telling  the  truth  plainly  ; 
many  who  have  had  their  education  among  sectaries  or  non- 
conformists, have  apostated  to  Rome,  but  few  or  no  right 
episcopal  divines.      Hot  water  freezeth  the  soonest," 

Not  all  that  Grotius  held,  did  Bramhall  approve.  Of  hisr 
book  of  the  Hight  of  the  Sovereign  Magistrates  in  Sacred 
Things,  he  says  :  "But  when  I  did  read  it,  it  seemed  to  me 
to  come  too  near  an  Erastian,  and  to  lessen  the  power  of  the 
keys  too  much,  which  Christ  left  as  a  legacy  to  His  Church." 
The  high  churchman  here  likes  not  too  much  exaltation  ol 
the  union  of  the  state  with  the  church,  because  he  sees  that 
the  former  Avould  take  away,  in  great  measure,  the  power  ol 
the  latter.  Strange,  that  dissenters  should  desire  to  see  the 
church  uncontrolled  by  the  public  opinion  embodied  in  the 
state.  And  so  the  archbishop  will  not  pin  his  religion  to  any 
of  their  sleeves,  saying  :  "  Plato  is  my  friend,  and  Socrates  is 
my  friend,  but  Truth  is  my  best  friend." 

He  shows,  however,  that  Grotius  "  was  in  affection  a  friend, 
and  in  desire  a  true  son  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  upon 
his  death-bed  recommended  that  church,  as  it  ivas  legally 
established,  to  his  wife,  and  such  other  of  his  family  as  were 
then  about  him,  obliging  them  by  his  authority  to  adhere 
firmly  to  it,  so  far  as  they  had  opportunity  ;"  and  after  telling 
how  they  obeyed  this  injunction,  the  archbishop  says  :  "If 
any  man  think,  that  he  knoweth  Grotius  his  mind  better  by 
conjectural  consequences  than  he  did  himself,  or  that  he  would 
dissemble  with  his  wife  and  children  upon  his  death-bed,  he 
may  enjoy  his  own  opinion  to  himself,  but  he  will  find  few 
to  join  with  him." 

Henry  Newton,  embassador  extraordinary  from  the  Queen 
of  England  to  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  in  his  letters  to 
Barcelinus,  Le  Clerc,  &c.,  acquaints  us  with  the  attachment 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  171 

•  of  Grotius  to  the  Church  of  England,  to  which  church  he 
would  have  openly  conformed,  had  time  permitted.  He 
thought  the  more  worthily  of  the  Reformation  in  England, 
"  because  they  who  undertook  that  holy  work  admitted  of 
nothing  new,  nothing  of  their  own,  but  had  their  eyes  wholly 
fixed  upon  another  world."  He  advised  his  friends  in  Hol- 
land to  take  holy  orders  from  our  bishops,  and  desired  that 
the  Remonstrants  should  appoint  bishops  among  themselves, 
and  receive  the  laying  on  of  hands  "  from  the  Irish  archbishop 
who  is  there,"  evidently  alluding  to  Bramhall.  He  writes, 
"  The  English  Liturg)'  was  always  accounted  the  best  by  all 
learned  men  :"  and  also  it  is  said  of  him  by  Newton,  '•'  Body 
and  soul  he  professeth  himself  to  be  for  the  Church  of  En- 
gland ;  and  gives  this  judgment  of  it,  that  it  is  the  likeliest  to 
last  of  any  church  this  day  in  being."*"  How  satisfied  ought 
all  members  of  the  Church  of  England  to  be,  when  they  find 
the  Continental  Reformers  (Calvin,  Beza,  &c.,  among  the 
number),  ever  envying  the  episcopal  order  existing  among  the 
English  Reformers  I  and  the  true  secret  of  the  continuance 
and  success  of  the  English  church  is  to  be  found  in  Jewell's 
resolve  :  "  We  undertake  to  show  that  the  most  glorious  gos- 
pel of  God,  and  the  ancient  bishops,  and  the  primitive  church, 
are  on  our  side."t 

This  is  the  character  given  of  Grotius  by  Archbishop  Bram- 
hall :  "It  shall  suffice  me  to  say,  that  he  was  a  person  of 
rare  parts,  of  excellent  learning,  of  great  charity  ;  and  of  so 
exemplary  a  life,  that  his  fiercest  adversaries  had  nothing  to 
object  against  him  of  moment,  but  were  forced  to  rake  into 
the  faults  of  his  family  ;  which,  whether  true  or  false,  was 
not  so  ingenuously  done."  And  when  Baxter  softens  down  in 
regard  to  Arminian  charges  against  Grotius,  and  finds  in  gen- 
eral that  "  most  of  our  contentions  are  more  about  words  than 
matter,"  the  archbishop  exquisitely  says,  "I  see  Truth  is  the 
daughter  of  Time." 

There  was  another  great  man  who  appreciated  the  talents 

*  See  Le  Clerc.  at  the  end  of  Grotius's  "  Truth  of  the  Christian 
Religion.'' 

t  Bishop  Jewelfs  "  apology,''  &c..  recommended  in  30th  canon  of 
the  church-. 


172  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

and  loved  the  disposition  of  Grotius,  and  that  man  was  Mil- 
ton. His  Adamus  Exul  is  accounted  the  drama  which  laid 
the  foundation  of  our  own  poet's  immortal  Paradise  Lost. 
Of  modern  minds  those  of  Guizot  and  Dr.  Arnold  seem  most 
to  be  in  accordance  with  his  own.  Both  would  unite  all  that 
is  true,  quite  apart  from  that  indifferentism  which  would 
countenance  the  true  in  union  with  that  which  is  false. 
Both  have  evidently  listened  to  the  noble  and  loving  voices 
of  Erasmus,  Cassander,  Calixtus,  Leibnitz,  and  Schlegel,  and 
both  like  him  have  failed  in  meeting  with  a  successful  issue 
to  their  comprehensive  plans  of  true  fraternization.  It  ap- 
pears Guizot  was  not  so  warm  an  advocate  as  Dr.  Arnold  of 
the  union  of  church  and  state,  for  although  he  thinks  France* 
has  been  the  centre  from  which  European  civilization  has 
emanated,  yet  he  supposes  it  impossible  that  the  state  should 
live  according  to  the  exan:iple  of  the  church,  and  that  the 
people  of  the  state  should  be  as  one  with  the  people  of  the 
church  ;  in  other  words,  he  thinks,  contrary  to  Arnold,  that 
the  state  would  rather  secularize  the  church,  than  the  church 
evangelize  the  state.  This  we  mention  by  the  way,  for  in 
fact  Grotius,  Guizot,  and  Arnold,  v/ould  have  been  a  noble 
trio  in  Christian  philosophy,  and  agreed  well  in  their  love  of 
social  peace  and  good-will,  established  on  Guizot's  admired 
basis — the  brotherhood  of  all  men  in  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  equahty  of  all  men  before  God.  But  "  Man,"  cries 
Cecil,  "  is  a  creature  of  extremes.  Few  are  wise  enough  to 
find  the  middle  path.  Because  Papists  have  made  too  much 
of  some  things,  Protestants  have  made  too  little  of  them. 
The  Popish  heresy  of  human  merit  in  justification,  drove 
Luther,  on  the  other  side,  into  most  unwarrantable  and  un- 
scriptural  statements  of  that  doctrine.  The  Papists  consider 
grace  as  inseparable  fi:om  the  participation  of  the  Sacra- 
ments— the  Protestants  too  often  lose  sight  of  them  as  insti- 
tuted means  of  conveying  grace."  It  is  refreshing  to  find 
earnest  and  evangelical  minds  breaking  forth  in  this  way,  "  for 
it  is  a  perilous  employment,"  as  Dr.  Arnold  writes,!  "  for 

*  Lectures  on  the  Progress  of  Civilization,  by  M.  Guizot.     Democ- 
racy and  its  Mission,  by  M.  Guizot. 
t  Preface  to  Sermons,  vol.  iii. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  173 

any  man  to  be  perpetually  contemplating  narrow-mindedness 
and  weakness  in  conjunction  with  much  of  piety  and  good- 
ness " 

Lately  there  has  sprung  up  one  of  Grotian  spirit,  except 
that  he  accepts  not  so  fully  the  teaching  of  the  Church  of 
England  :  yet  is  he  one  of  an  earnest,  thoughtful  mind,  eager 
for  coalition.  His  main  error — but  then  he  is  a  young  man — 
seems  to  be  set  forth  in  the  idea  that  truth  has  not  yet  ap- 
peared in  the  world  or  the  churches  of  the  world  ;  that  the 
words  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,"  ought  rather  to  have 
been,  "  Lo,  I  shall  be  with  you  some  time  in  the  twentieth 
century,  and  Mr.  George  Dawson*  is  to  be  my  pioneer  and 
discoverer."  But,  notwithstanding  this  intellectual  conceit, 
much  that  he  speaks  may  be  loved,  and  therefore  let  us  hear 
him,  when  he  is  descanting  on  the  blessing  of  unity  rather 
than  diversity  of  spirit.  "  Do  we  not  know,"  he  writes, 
"  some  families  that  read  none  but  Baptist  books  :  others, 
none  but  Unitarian  tracts  and  writings  :  many  who,  in  their 
narrow  notions  of  sacred  hterature,  study  only  the  prophets 
of  their  own  sect  ?  They  know  nothing  about  others  :  they 
understand  them  not  :  they  desire  not  to  understand  them. 
Nursed  up  in  their  own  little,  narrow  apartment,  they  walk 
wearily  round  it,  till  they  have  left  their  footprint  upon  the 
stone  of  its  floor.  Should  a  wise  man  be  brought  up  so  ? 
Shall  I  refuse  to  be  taught  by  the  holy  words  of  Fenelon, 
because  he  belongs  not  to  my  sect  or  creed  ?  Shall  Jeremy 
Taylor  have  written  eloquently,  and  Chrysostom  of  the  '  gold- 
en mouth'  have  spoken  and  preached  in  vain  for  me,  because 
I  belong  not  to  their  communion  ?  Verily,  no  I  I  accept  with 
thankfulness  all  the  good  that  God  sends  me,  come  from 
where  it  will.      I  believe  in  good  men  of  every  church." 

And  so  did  Dr.  Johnson,  albeit  he  most  loved  his  own. 
Hear  him  speak  of  the  next  in  succession,  Dr.  Watts.      He 

*  George  Dawson,  Esq.,  M.  A.  Birmingham,  anther  of  ''  Demands 
of  the  Age  upon  the  Church."  This  gentleman,  like  Southey,  ha'- 
commenced  life  as  a  lecturer ;  but  whether  he  will  further  resemble 
Southey,  remains  yet  to  be  seen.  Reading  and  reflection  are  the  two 
things  that  must  inform  and  brace  his  mind ;  and  he  must  take  good 
heed  to  combat  against  the  idea  that  he  is  to  be  a  discoverer  of  the 
truth,  when  all  the  while  the  truth  has  been  in  the  world. 


174  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

says,  *'  Dr.  Watts  was  one  of  the  first  who  taught  the  dis- 
senters to  write  and  speak  like  other  men,  by  showing  them 
that  elegance  might  consist  with  piety."  Again,  when  stating 
that  he  is  to  be  included  in  the  "  Lives  of  the  English  Poets," 
he  adds,  "  His  name  has  long  been  held  by  me  in  veneration, 
and  I  would  not  wiUingly  be  reduced  to  tell  of  him  only  that 
he  was  born  and  died  ;"  he  therefore  desires  to  be  favored 
with  every  information  about  him,  saying,  "  I  wish  to  distin- 
guish Watts,  a  man  who  never  wrote  but  for  a  good  purpose." 
Doctor  Towers,  the  opponent  of  Dr.  Johnson,  says  :  "  His  life 
of  Dr.  AVatts  is  written  with  great  candor  :  and  perhaps  he 
might  be  the  more  inclined  to  do  justice  to  that  ingenious 
divine,  though  a  dissenter,  not  only  from  respect  for  his  piety, 
but  also  from  some  grateful  remembrance  of  the  assistance 
which  he  had  received  from  his  works  in  the  compilation  of 
his  Dictionary."^ 

By  referring  to  Johnson's  memoir  of  this  good  man,  we 
find  how  pleasantly  thirty-six  years  of  his  life  were  spent 
under  the  same  roof  with  the  family  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney. 
Here,  and  Pliny  might  have  envied  him,  "  he  had  the  privi- 
lege of  a  country  recess,  the  fragrant  bower,  the  spreading 
lawn,  the  flowery  garden,  and  other  advantages,  to  soothe 
his  mind  and  aid  his  restoration  to  health."  Here  he  con- 
tinued to  write  and  preach.  "He  did  not  endeavor,"  says  his 
biographer,  "  to  assist  his  eloquence  by  any  gesticulations  : 
for,  as  no  corporeal  actions  have  any  correspondence  with 
theological  truth,  he  did  not  see  how  they  could  enforce  it ;" 
and  of  his  writing  he  says,  "  Every  man  acquainted  with  the 
common  principles  of  human  action,  will  look  with  venera- 
tion on  the  writer,  who  is  at  one  time  combating  Locke, 
and  at  another  making  a  Catechism  for  children  in  their 
fourth  year."  Of  his  poetry,  the  great  critic  did  not  hold 
a  high  opinion,  for  he  thought  there  was  a  difficulty  about 
writing  sacred  poetry  hardly  to  be  overcome,  therefore,  he 
writes,  "His  devotional  poetry  is,  like  that  of  others,  unsat- 
isfactory :"  and  adds,  "It  is  sufficient  for  Watts  to  have  done 
better  than  others  ivhat  no  man  lias  done  well.''     And  how 

*  Essay  on  the  Life,  Character,  and  Writings  of  Dr.  Samuel  John- 
son, p.  89. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  175 

keenly  and  truly  does  Dr.  Johnson  discern  the  true  orthodoxy 
of  character,  "  It  was  not  only  in  his  book,  but  in  his  mind, 
that  orthodoxy  was  united  with  charity."  The  italics  are 
his  own,  and  show  how  he  loved  love.  He  concludes  by 
wishing  the  reader  "  to  imitate  him  in  all  but  his  noncon- 
formity, to  copy  his  benevolence  to  man  and  his  reverence  to 
God."  Alas,  did  not  his  nonconformity  extend  to  a  doubt, 
even  in  his  last  hours,  of  the  first  mystery  of  faith,  the 
Trinity  ?  Dr.  Watts  would  probably  have  been  the  same 
pious,  modest,  inoffensive  man,  with  whatever  communion  of 
Christians  he  had  been  connected.  Indeed,  there  is  much 
of  Church  of  England  temper  and  piety  in  his  character, 
and  we  might  imagine  old  Isaac  Walton  applauding  the 
meekness  of  his  life.  In  speaking  of  a  book  of  Miscellanies 
in  prose  and  verse,  to  which  Watts  evidently  contributed 
some  pieces,  Dr.  Johnson  thus  remarkably  speaks  of  two 
(one  of  them  was  probably  Watts)  of  the  contributors,  "  They 
would  both  have  done  honor  to  a  better  society,  for  they  had 
that  charity  which  might  well  make  their  failings  be  forgot- 
ten, and  ivith  which  the  ivhole  Christian  icorld  ivish  for 
communion.  They  were  pure  from  all  the  heresies  of  an 
age,  to  which  every  opiniori  is  become  a  favorite  that  the 
universal  church  has  hitherto  detested!  Our  friend  George 
Dawson,  and  many  less  illustrious  truth-mongers  among  up- 
start propagandists  of  modern  discoveries,  might  well  ponder 
thoughtfully  on  this  last  sentence,  ever  remembering  what 
the  immortal  Dry  den  had  before  written,* 

"  But  since  men  will  believe  more  than  they  need. 
And  every  man  will  make  himself  a  creed^ 
In  doubtful  questions  'tis  the  safest  way 
To  learn  what  unsuspected  ancients  say  : 
For  'tis  not  likely  ice  should  higher  soar 
In  search  of  heaven,  than  all  the  church  before  . 
Nor  can  we  be  deceived,  unless  we  see 
The  Scripture  and  the  Fathers  disagree." 


*  A  Layman's  Faith.     Dryden's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  409. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

HIS    CHURCHMANSHIP. 

Dr.  Johnson  recommended  "  Bishop  Bramhall  on  Liberty 
and  Necessity."  This  is  the  answer  to  Hobbes.  Predesti- 
nation and  free-will  were  subjects  on  which  Dr.  Johnson 
failed  in  speaking  with  his  wonted  positiveness  :  he  could 
only  say,  "  All  theory  is  against  the  freedom  of  the  will,  all 
experience  for  it."*  Archbishop  Bramhall  argues  that  the 
freedom  of  man  is  not  inconsistent  with  God's  eternal  decrees, 
nor  with  His  eternal  prescience  ;  and  the  following  words,  ex- 
tracted from  a  large  argument,  at  once  take  away  much  of  the 
difficulty  of  a  metaphysical  subject,  which  must  still  remain, 
not  contrary  to,  but  above  human  reasoning :  and  therefore  it 
is  no  wonder  that  we  find  Dr.  Johnson's  reverential  mind 
retreating  from  collision  with  its  immense  profoundness.  But 
hear  Bramhall:!  "As  the  decree  of  God  is  eternal,  so  is 
His  knowledge  ;   and  therefore,  to  speak  truly  and  properly, 

*  Dr.  Shuttleworth  has  a  fine  sermon  on  this  subject :  it  is  the  tenth 
in  his  "  Sermons  on  some  of  the  leading  Principles  of  Christianity." 
This  sentence  remarkably  agrees  with  Dr.  Johnson's  opinion,  "The 
fact  is  certain,  that,  while  the  instinctive  conviction  of  our  breasts 
announces  to  us  that  ice  are  free^  the  tendency  of  all  our  metaphysical 
inquiries,  all  that  we  can  trace  scientifically  of  the  origin  of  our  thoughts, 
and  the  motives  of  our  conduct,  gives  a  directly  contrary  conclusion, 
and  as  loudly  proclaims  the  necessity  of  tnan's  actioiis.''  From  this 
extract  we  may  suppose  that  the  question  is  candidly  investigated  ;  and 
he  shows  that  the  existence  of  our  free  agency  has  been  unequivocally 
declared  by  our  Saviour  himself;  that  St.  Paul,  also,  is  consistent  with 
himself,  and  with  the  doctrine  of  his  Almighty  INIaster.  "  Ask  your- 
selves,"' he  exclaims,  '"whether  that  beautiful  and  energetic  exhorta- 
tion (12th  and  13th  Romans)  to  every  moral  and  Christian  excellence 
could  possibly  be  the  work  of  a  man  believing  in  the  humiliating  doc- 
trine of  strict  moral  necessity  ?" 

t  Bramhalfs  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  191. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  177 

there  is  neither  f ore-knowledge  nor  after -knowledge  in  Him. 
The  knowledge  of  God  comprehends  all  times  in  a  point,  by 
reason  of  the  eminence  and  virtue  of  its  infinite  perfection. 
And  yet  I  confess  that  this  is  called  foreknowledge  in  respect 
of  us.  But  this,  fo^xknowledge  cloth  'produce  ?io  absolute 
necessity.  Things  are  not  therefore  because  they  are  fore- 
known, but  therefore  they  are  foreknown  because  they  shall 
come  to  pass.  If  any  thing  should  come  to  pass  otherwise 
than  it  doth,  yet  God's  knowledge  could  not  be  irritated  by 
it  :  for  then  He  did  not  know  that  it  should  come  to  pass  as 
He  now  doth,  because  every  knowledge  of  vision  necessarily 
presupposeth  its  object.  God  did  know  that  Judas  should 
betray  Christ  :  but  Judas  ivas  not  necessitated  to  be  a  traitor 
by  God's  knowledge.  If  Judas  had  not  betrayed  Christ, 
then  God  had  not  foreknown  that  Judas  should  betray 
Him." 

All  who  read  Hobbes,  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  Calvin, 
should  read  this  work  of  Bramhall's  also.  Alexander  Knox 
says,"^  "  I  think,  of  few  things  I  can  be  more  sure,  than  that 
Calvinistic  predestination  is  not  in  the  Bible  :  "providential 
predestination  runs  all  through  it :  and  a  warm  imagination, 
when  once  the  idea  was  taken  up,  made  it  easy  to  transmute 
the  one  into  the  other."  The  Church  of  England  in  her 
1 7th  article,  wherein,  said  Dr.  Johnson,  she  mentions  this 
matter  "  with  as  little  positiveness  as  could  be,"  does  not 
assert  the  doctrine  of  absolute  predestination,  because,  in  the 
article  just  before,  she  states  that  "  we  may  fall  from  grace 
given,"  which  tenet  would  be  inconsistent  w'ith  the  other  : 
and  indeed  we  may  say  that  with  such  a  doctrine  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Liturgy,  or  the  use  of  any  prayer  at  all,  would  be 
inconsistent.  And  thus  Hobbes  denies  prayer  to  be  either  a 
cause  or  a  means  of  God's  blessings,  for  God's  will  is  un- 
changeable. But,  retorts  Bramhall,  to  "  change  the  will," 
and  "  to  will  a  change,"  are  two  different  things  ;  "  to  change 
the  will  argues  a  change  in  the  agent,  but  to  will  a  change 
only  argues  a  change  in  the  object."  We  can  only  say,  on 
Bramhall's  first  great  proposition   above  stated,  that  every 

*  Correspondence  with  Bishop  Jebb,  vol.  i.  p.  123.     Letter  20. 


178  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

change  in  our  wills  is  known  to  the  always  present  knowl- 
edge of  God,  and  that  such  terms  as  «'  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world,"  &c.,  which  seem  to  us  to  argue  foreknowledge 
in  God,  actually  only  signify  present  knowledge  with  Him 
in  whom  is  no  past  or  future,  but  one  present  time  ;  and 
when  we  think  we  are  particularly  acute  and  clever  in 
making  discoveries  in  this  most  abstruse  theology,  let  us  bear 
in  mind  the  archbishop's  caution,  "  Too  much  light  is  an 
enemy  to  the  light,  and  too  much  law  is  an  enemy  to  justice. 
I  could  wish  we  wrangled  less  about  God's  decrees  until  we 
understood  them  better."  Meanwhile,  let  us  agree  with  our 
British  poet :  * 

"  One  adequate  support 
For  the  calamities  of  mortal  life 
Exists — one  only  ;   an  assured  belief 
That  the  procession  of  our  fate,  however 
Sad  or  disturb'd,  is  order'd  by  a  Being 
Of  infinite  benevolence  and  power  ; 
Whose  everlasting  purposes  embrace 
All  accidents^  converting  them  to  good  :" 

for  this  is  the  resolution  we  must  at  last  arrive  at,  in  com- 
mon with  Parnell's  "  bending  hermit,"  and  confess  that  the 
Almighty, 

"Your  actions  uses,  nor  controls  your  will." 

The  celebrated  works  of  Bramhall  comprise  "An  Answer 
to  M.  de  la  Militiere  ;"  "  A  just  Vindication  of  the  Church 
of  England  from  the  unjust  Aspersion  of  Criminal  Schism  ;" 
"  A  Replication  to  the  Bishop  of  Chalcedon  :  with  Appendix 
in  Answer  to  the  Exceptions  of  William  Sergeant;"  "  Schism 
Guarded,  &c.  ;"  "The  Consecration  and  Succession  of  Prot- 
estant Bishops  justified."  This  was  among  the  most  popular 
of  his  works,  and  amply  refutes  the  idle  story  of  the  Nag's 
Head  Consecration.  "  Discourses  against  the  English  Sect- 
aries," "The  Serpent  Salve,"  "Vindication  of  himself  and 
the  Episcopal  Clergy,  &c.  :"  and,  we  may  justly  own,  after 
reading  these  works,  that  whoever  wishes  to  withstand  the 
encroachments  of  Popery  or  Dissent  should  by  no  means 
*  Wordsworth's  Excursion,  book  iv.  line  11,  &e. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  179 

neglect  a  diligent  perusal  of  Bramhall  :  for,  from  his  writings, 
he  will  indeed  come  forth  a  scholar,  armed  at  all  points  for 
attack  or  defense.  In  his  controversies  with  the  Church  of 
Rome,  Jeremy  Taylor  tells  us,  that  "he  stated  the  questions 
so  wisely,  and  conducted  them  so  prudently,  and  handled 
them  so  learnedly,  that  I  may  truly  say,  they  never  were, 
more  materially  confuted  by  any  man  since  the  questions 
have  so  unhappily  disturbed  Christendom." 

The  latest  editor  of  his  works  observes,  while  he  excuses 
the  occasional  homeliness  of  the  language,  that,  "It  is  im- 
possible to  read  a  sentence  of  Bramhall's  writings  without 
feeling  that  he  is  in  earnest."  We  are  told  that  "he  was  a 
firm  friend  to  the  Church  of  England,  bold  in  the  defense  of 
it,  and  patient  in  suffering  for  it  :  yet  he  was  very  far  from 
any  thing  like  bigotry.  He  had  a  great  allowance  and 
charity  for  men  of  different  persuasions,  looking  upon  those 
churches  as  in  a  tottering  condition  that  stood  upon  nice 
opinions^  He  thought  it  to  be  the  interest  of  the  Protest- 
ant church  to  widen  her  foundation,  and  make  her  articles 
as  charitable  and  comprehensive  (so  saith  Paley  also)  as  she 
could,  that  those  nicer  accuracies,  that  divide  the  greatest 
wits  of  the  world,  might  not  be  made  the  characteristics  of 
reformation,  and  give  occasion  to  one  party  to  excommuni- 
cate and  censure  another.  Thus  he  saw  the  Church  of 
England  constituted  ;  both  Calvinists  and  Arminians  sub- 
scribing the  same  propositions,  and  "  walking  in  the  house 
of  God  as  friends."  O  that  the  men  of  the  present  day  who 
love  Bramhall,  were  like-minded  with  him,  and  we  should 
not  witness  the  painful  spectacle  of  distractions  and  divisions 
loithin  the  church,  thus  giving  power  to  Rome,  and  room 
for  the  taunts  and  rebukes  of  dissenters  I      Thus  the  poet  :* 

"  High  and  Low^ 
Watchwords  of  party,  on  all  tongues  are  rife, 
As  if  a  church,  though  sprung  from  heaven,  must  owe 
To  opposites  and  fierce  extremes  her  life. 
No  !    to  the  golden  mean,  and  quiet  floiv 
Of  truths  that  soften  hatred,  temper  strife^ 


*  Wordsworth's  Sonnets. 


IGO  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHUllCHiMANSHIP. 

Bramhall,  like  most  Episcopal  divines  of  that  period,  en- 
dured much  trial  and  trouble,  but  was  at  length  wonderfully 
delivered,  and  during  his  life  effected  much  good  for  the 
church.  The  eloquent  Jeremy  Taylor  preached  his  funeral 
sermon,  in  the  course  of  which  he  enumerates  these  matters 
in  their  due  order.  In  telling  his  hearers  that  none  can 
avoid  the  sentence  of  death,  he  says,  "  If  wit  and  learning, 
great  fame  and  great  experience  ;  if  wise  notices  of  things, 
and  an  honorable  fortune ;  if  courage  and  skill,  if  prelacy  and 
an  honorable  age,  if  any  thing  that  could  give  greatness  and 
immunity  to  a  wise  and  prudent  man,  could  have  been  put 
in  a  bar  against  a  sad  day,  and  have  gone  for  good  plea,  this 
sad  scene  of  sorrows  had  not  been  the  entertainment  of  this 
assembly."  The  bishop  further  observes,  "He  was  a  man 
of  great  business  and  great  resort :  Semper  aliquis  i?i 
Cydo7iis  domo,  as  the  Corinthians  said  :  '  There  was  always 
somebody  in  Cydon's  house.'  He  was  jispl^Gn'  rbv  [3tdv  epyoj 
Kal  |3ij3AG),  'he  divided  his  life  into  labor  and  his  book.'  " 
He  describes  him  as  possessing  Hooker's  judiciousness,  Jew- 
ell's learning,  the  acuteness  of  Bishop  Andrewes  ;  and  sums 
up  by  saying,  "He  was  a  wise  prelate,  a  learned  doctor,  a 
just  man,  a  true  friend,  a  great  benefactor  to  others,  a  thank- 
ful beneficiary  where  he  was  obliged  himself"  Such  a  char- 
acter from  a  man  so  learned  and  just  as  Taylor  is  indeed  of 
value  ;  and  let  it  be  said  to  every  man  who  would  take  part, 
or  wish  for  decision  and  settledness,  in  the  great  controversial 
questions  of  this  day,  and  which  are  more  and  more  advanc- 
ing with  powqr  and  passion  in  proportion  as  Rome  marches 
through  the  land  and  gathers  strength,  or  as  Dissent  increases 
and  is  the  occasion  of  anarchy  and  trouble,  let  it  be  over  and 
over  again  spoken  in  the  ears  of  men,  "  Read  Bramhall ; 
whatever  else  you  read  or  hear,  sit  down  and  read  the  un- 
dying works  of  Bramhall ;  ay,  read  Hooker,  read  Andrewes, 
read  Beveridge,  read  Taylor,  but  nevertheless,  take  good 
heed  that  you  neglect  not  a  patient  and  digestive  reading 
of  Bramhall  I  Then  your  information  on  all  points  of  the 
usual  controversies  will  be  full  and  satisfactory." 

Johnson  praised  John  Bunyan  highly.  "His  'Pilgrim's 
Progress'   has  great  merit,  both  for  invention,  imagination. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  181 

and  the  conduct  of  the  story.  Few  books,  I  believe,  have 
had  a  more  extensive  sale."  He  observes,  that  it  is  remark- 
able, that  it  begins  very  much  like  the  poem  of  Dante,  and 
yet  no  translation  of  Dante,  had  appeared,  when  Bunyan 
wrote.  He  thought  also  that  he  must  have  read  Spenser. 
"  The  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  recommended  in  great  degree  by 
the  persecution  that  poor  Bunyan  underwent  (and  hence  the 
singular  circumstances  under  which  it  was  published),  ere  he 
was  released  by  the  kind  interposition  of  the  Bishop  of  Lin- 
coln (Dr.  Barlow),  is  still  a  popular  book,  and  likely  to  con- 
tinue so.  The  poorer  classes  of  people,  when  they  once  un- 
derstand it,  are  fond  of  it,  but  it  is  puzzling  oftentimes  to 
know  what  to  answer,  when  they  ask  whether  it  be  all  true  ? 
If  you  say,  It  is  not ;  then  they  would  probably  consider 
their  time  wasted  in  reading  any  more  of  it  :  and  still,  you 
can  hardly  aver  that  it  is  true,  although  drawing  a  picture 
of  what  may  be  true  ;  to  explain  to  them  its  allegorical 
nature  would  not  be  satisfactory.  Bunyan's  other  religious 
parables  and  tracts,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  are  deservedly 
coiLsigned  to  oblivion. 

Isaac  Walton,  religious,  modest,  quaint  Isaac  Walton,  well 
might  Dr.  Johnson  send  word  to  Dr.  Home,  that  all  the  atten- 
tion he  could  give,  "  shall  be  cheerfully  bestowed  upon  what 
I  think  a  pious  work,  the  preservation  and  elucidation  of 
Walton,  by  whose  writings,  I  have  been  onost  pleasingly 
edijied.''  And  again.  Bos  well  informs  us,  "  He  talked  of 
'  Isaac  Walton's  Lives,'  Vv'hich  was  one  of  his  most  favorite 
books.  Dr.  Donne's  Life,  he  said,  was  the  most  perfect  of 
all."  This  is  a  perfect,  as  well  as  a  popular  book — it  is  the 
simplicity,  the  meekness,  the  truthfulness,  the  cheerfulness, 
and  modesty  of  Walton  that  charms  us  in  his  character  of  a 
biographer.  Of  this  latter  quality  he  gives  us  a  sample  in 
his  Preface  to  Dr.  Donne's  Life,  wherein  he  says,  "  If  the 
author's  glorious  spirit,  which  now  is  in  heaven,  can  have 
the  leisure  to  look  down  and  see  me,  the  poorest,  the  meanest 
of  all  his  friends,  in  the  midst  of  his  officious  (in  the  old  sense) 
duty,  confident  I  am,  that  he  will  not  disdain  this  well-meant 
sacrifice  to  his  memory,"  &c.  Surely  in  this  we  perceive  a 
sincere    humbleness    concerning   himself,   united   with   a  be- 


182  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCH MANSHIP. 

coming  confidence  in  the  departed  one's  integrity  :  for  it  was 
but  the  convert  rightly  remembering  the  converter,  as  he  said, 

"  Forget  his  powerful  preaching  :  and  forget 
I  am  his  convert." 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  republication  of  "  Walton's 
Lives"  was  not  undertaken  by  Bishop  Home  ;  he  was  a  fit 
man  for  the  work. 

Come  we  next  to  Baxter,  a  great  man  and  a  good,  one  of 
the  most  spiritually-minded  of  non-conformists,  and  yet  not 
without  his  failings  in  other  people's  eyes,  and  most  certainly, 
we  may  conclude,  in  his  own.  In  the  loving  liberality  of 
his  heart,  he  was  but  half  non-conformist,  and  half  monarchist. 
Hence,  he  says,  "  The  Quakers  in  their  shops,  when  I  go 
along  London  streets,  say,  '  Alas  I  poor  man,  thou  art  yet  in 
darkness.'  They  have  oft  come  to  the  congregation,  when  I 
had  liberty  to  preach  Christ's  Gospel,  and  cried  out  against 
me  as  a  deceiver  of  the  people.  They  have  followed  me 
home,  crying  out  in  the  streets,  '  The  day  of  the  Lord  is 
coming,  and  thou  shalt  perish  as  a  deceiver  I'  They  have 
stood  in  the  market-place,  and  under  my  window,  year  after 
year,  crying  to  the  people,  '  Take  heed  of  your  priests,  they 
deceive  your  souls  I'  And  if  any  one  wore  a  lace  or  neat 
clothing,  they  cried  out  to  me,  *  These  are  the  fruits  of  your 
ministry  I' " 

Thus  was  a  good  Christian  treated  by  other  professing 
Christians,  putting  us  in  mind  of  what  happened  to  the  pious 
and  charitable  Mede.  This  able  and  modest  divine  had  lent 
money  to  a  person  at  Cambridge,  whom  at  a  future  time, 
when  no  longer  in  need,  he  reminded  of  his  obligation.  The 
answer  he  received  was,  "  That,  upon  a  strict  and  exact 
account,  he  had  no  right  to  what  he  claimed."  "No  right?" 
demanded  Mede.  "  No,  no  right,"  rejoined  the  other,  who 
was  a  Puritan,  '< because  you  are  none  of  God's  children: 
for  they  only  have  right,  who  are  gracious  in  God's  sight  I" 
What  would  Protestants  now  say,  should  this  their  champion 
be  thus  taunted  in  the  present  time  :  he  who  has  so  learnedly, 
at  least,  brought  the  prophecies  contained  in  a  portion  of 
Scripture  (the  Apocalypse)  to  bear  against  the  Church  of 
Rome  :  he,  who  to  that  common  taunt  of  the  Romanists, 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  133 

«'  Where  was  your  church  before  Luther?"  readily  answered, 
•'  Where  was  the  flour  when  the  wheat  went  to  the  mill  ?" 
Baxter  was  a  via  media  man  of  his  days.  He  expressed 
an  open  dislike  to  the  usurpation  of  Cromwell,  and  told  the 
Protector  to  his  face  that  the  people  of  England  held  the 
ancient  institutions  of  the  country  in  love  and  reverence. 
This  we  may  conceive  to  be  the  fact  ;  for  when  the  Restora- 
tion took  place,  Charles  the  Second,  on  being  so  warmly 
greeted  by  all  classes  of  the  people,  said,  "  The  only  wonder 
to  himself  was,  that  he  had  not  come  back  before."  In 
religion  Baxter  endeavored  to  find  a  halting-place  between 
strict  Calvinism  and  high-church  Arminianism,  reserving  the 
doctrine  of  election,  but  discarding  that  of  reprobation.  As 
he  grew  older  he  became  milder  in  his  doctrines,  and  it  is  to 
the  abatement  of  his  zeal  against  Arminianism  that  Bramhall 
pithily  observes,  "  I  see  Truth  is  the  daughter  of  Time."  In 
his  early  writings  he  speaks  very  differently  of  the  fear  of 
death  to  what  he  does  when  old  age  crept  upon  him — 
naturam  expellas  furca  tamen  usque  recurret.  Some  polit- 
ical allusions,  too,  of  a  most  exceptionable  character,  which 
appeared  in  three  editions  of  his  "  Saints'  Rest,"  were  subse- 
quently expunged. 

Though  a  non-conformist,  he  was  accounted,  in  his  own 
way,  to  be  a  friend  to  the  EstabHshed  Church,  and  he 
strongly  took  the  part  of  the  church  in  supporting  the  con- 
stitution, when  the  bishops  refused  to  sanction  the  reading  of 
the  Second  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  issued  by  James  the 
Second,  on  the  27th  of  April,  1688.  Every  one  must  see 
that  James's  professions  of  liberalism  were  the  masks  under 
which  he  hoped  to  bring  in  the  Popish  religion,  and  Baxter 
would  most  quickly  perceive  this,  since,  in  preaching  before 
Cromwell,  he  appears  to  think  the  toleration  of  sectaries  and 
separatists  the  grand  evil  of  his  government.  In  short,  he 
was  always  trying  to  repress  the  sectaries,  and  to  uphold  an 
Episcopacy,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  desirable  for  reformation, 
and  peace  of  Churches  ;"  and  he  did  so  because  "  it  being 
agreeable  to  the  Scripture  and  primitive  government,  is  like- 
liest to  be  the  way  of  a  more  universal  concord,  if  ever  the 
churches  on  earth  arrive  to  such  a  blessing  :   however,  it  ivill 


184  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

he  most  acceptable  to  God,  and  iv ell-informed  consciences.^^ 
But  he  met  with  the  usual  fate  of  a  reconciler.  "  And 
thus,"  says  Macaulay,  "  zealous  churchmen  called  him  a 
E/Oundhead ;  and  many  non-conformists  accused  him  of 
Erastianism  and  Arminianism  ;"  he  himself,  in  his  "  Grotian 
Religion,"  branding  Grotius  as  a  Papist  in  disguise.  He 
also  felt  aware  of  the  wrong  nature  of  his  earlier  impetuosity, 
and  hence  supposed  that  the  prohibition  on  David  was  laid 
upon  himself  also  ;  for  he  says,  "  I  have  been,  in  the  heat  of 
ray  zeal,  so  forward  to  change,  and  ivays  of  blood,  that  I  fear 
God  will  not  let  me  have  a  hand  in  the  peaceable  building 
of  his  church,  nor  to  see  it ;  for  I  have  always  been  taken 
off  when  I  attempted  it."  Those  who  wish  to  read  the  trial 
of  Baxter,  when  arraigned  before  the  furious  and  bloody- 
minded  Jeffreys,  must  turn  to  the  pages  of  Macaulay's  mag- 
nificent History  of  England. 

Like  that  of  Bunyan,  the  name  of  Baxter  will  ever  be  a 
cherished  one  in  England.  His  "  Call  to  the  Unconverted," 
and  "  Saints'  Rest,"  are  books  universally  known,  and  almost 
as  universally  admired.  The  man  is  to  be  pitied  who  loves 
them  not.  Boswell  asked  Johnson  what  works  of  Richard 
Baxter's  he  should  read  ?  and  the  reply  was  characteristic  of 
the  religious  mind  within  him,  "  Read  any  of  them  ;  they 
are  all  good."  At  another  time  he  said,  "  Baxter's  '  Reasons 
of  the  Christian  Religion'  contain  the  best  collection  of  the 
evidences  of  the  divinity  of  the  Christian  system."  Addison's 
"  Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  however,  must  never 
be  forgotten. 

Baxter  lived  in  troubled  and  fanatical  times,  when  it  might 
be  said  of  the  high  and  turbulent  of  both  sides,  that  some- 
times they  trod  on  the  head  of  a  saint,  and  sometimes  spat  in 
the  face  of  an  angel ;  for  virulent  factions  have  little  dis- 
crimination, little  esteem  for  the  virtues  of  opponents.  When 
Besme,  the  wretch  who  assassinated  Admiral  de  Coligny  in 
cool  blood,  was  taken  by  M.  de  Berthauville,  he  said,  "  I 
was  always,  you  know,"  discharging  a  pistol  at  him,  "  a 
wicked  dog  I"  "  But  I,"  said  Berthauville,  sheathing  his 
sword  in  the  murderer's  body,  "  am  determined  that  you  shall 
be  wicked  no  lonsfer."      Well  would  it  be  if  we  could   turn 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  185 

this  sword  against  our  own  selves,  for,  in  reality,  there  is  a 
species  of  murder  going  on  between  religious  sects,  when  men 
are  instigated  to  say  all  the  malicious  words  they  can  imag- 
ine, and  would  act,  as  in  former  days,  if  the  humane  common 
law  of  the  land,  combined  with  a  more  charitable  spirit  of 
public  opinion,  did  not  restrain  them. 

Dr.  Johnson  did  not  speak  well  of  Burnet ;  he  was  not  a 
man  after  his  own  heart.  He  thought  the  "  History  of  his 
own  Times"  very  entertaining,  though  the  style  "  mere  chit- 
chat." He  did  not  think  he  intentionally  lied,  but  was  so 
much  prejudiced,  that  he  took  no  pains  to  find  out  the  truth. 
"  He  w^as  like  a  man,"  he  said,  '•  who  resolves  to  regulate 
his  own  time  by  a  certain  watch,  but  will  not  inquire 
whether  the  watch  is  right  or  not."  If  we  substitute  the 
words  "  church"  or  "  sect"  for  watch,  we  shall  find  very 
many  individuals  of  this  description,  who  follow  after  a  name 
or  a  party  without  due  and  candid  investigation.  On  another 
occasion  he  said  of  this  book,  "  The  first  part  of  it  is  one  of 
the  most  enfertaining  books  in  the  English  language  :  it  is 
quite  dramatic  :  while  he  went  about  every  where,  saw  every 
where,  and  heard  every  where."  By  the  first  part  he  meant, 
so  far  as  it  appears  that  Burnet  himself  was  actually  engaged 
in  what  he  has  told,  which  might  easily  be  distinguished. 

Bishop  Burnet's  great  and  enduring  works  may  be  said  to 
be  his  History  of  the  Reformation,  his  Exposition  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  his  Pas- 
toral Care,  from  the  pages  of  which  quotations  have  been 
already  given.  In  his  preface  to  the  Exposition  he  modestly 
says  :  '-I  had  no  other  design  in  this  work,  but  first  to  find 
out  the  truth  myself,  and  then  to  help  others  to  find  it  out. 
If  I  succeed  to  any  degree  in  this  design,  I  will  bless  God  for 
it ;  and  if  I  fail  in  it,  I  will  bear  it  with  the  humility  and 
patience  that  becomes  me.  But  as  soon  as  I  see  a  better 
work  of  this  kind,  I  shall  be  among  the  first  of  those  who 
shall  recommend  that,  and  disparage  this."  And  now,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after  this  was  written,  the  book  is 
more  commended  than  ever.  Archbishop  Tillotson  has  been 
blamed,  because,  as  archbishop,  he  thus  expressed  himself  to 
Burnet  in  praise  of  one  portion,  of  the  Exposition  :   "In  the 


186  DR.  JOHiNSON'S  CHURCHxMANSHIP. 

article  of  the  Trinity,"  he  wrote,  ''you  have  said  all  that  I 
think  can  be  said  upon  so  obscure  and  difficult  an  argument;" 
adding,  "  the  Socinians  have  just  now  pubhshed  an  answer 
to  us  all."      But  the  fact  is,  that  Burnet  was  a  man  of  re- 
markable sense  and  prudence,  so  that  he  wrote  in  defense  of 
the  Trinity,  just  as  Bishop  Hoadley  wrote  in  defense  of  Epis- 
copacy :   both   of  these    divines  amply  proved  their  several 
cases,  without  entering  upon  the  higher  parts  of  the  argu- 
ment :   indeed  Burnet  would  never  run  into  extremes,  but  al- 
ways sought  to  lay  down  such  proof  and  persuasion  as  might 
prevail  with  wise  and  good  men.      He  loved  a  broad  founda- 
tion, and  hence  of  the  articles  he  says,  where  they  "  are  con- 
ceived in  large  and  general  words,  and  have  not  more  special 
and  restrained  words  in  them,  we  ought  to  take  that  for  a 
sure  indication  that  the  church  does  not  intend  to  tie  men 
up  too  severely  to  particular  opinions,  but  that  she  leaves  all 
to  such  a  liberty  as  is  agreeable  with  the  purity  of  the  faith." 
Burnet  was  neither  high  church  and  eloquent  as  Atterbury, 
nor  so  spiritual  as  Baxter,  but  a  man  of  enlarge*^  and  liberal 
views,  endued  with  great  variety  of  learning  ;   indeed  very  few 
books  escaped  his  research,  of  all  that  had  been  printed  from 
the  time  that  printing  presses  were  first  set  up  in  England  to 
the  end  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign.      He  thought  two  of  the 
best   books  which  we  have,  were  "  Laud's  Conference  with 
Fisher  the  Jesuit,"  and  Chiilingworth's  "  Religion  of  Protest- 
ants," &c.,  the  former  famous  for  its  great  learning,  judgment, 
and  exactness  ;   the  latter  written  with  so  clear  a  thread  of 
reason,  and  in  so  lively  a  style,  that  it  was  justly  reckoned, 
with  the  above,  to  be  the  best  book  that  had  been  written  in 
our  language. 

Burnet  set  out  in  life  with  higher  church  opinions  than  he 
afterward  held ;  in  short,  he  is  a  rare  instance  of  a  man  be- 
coming more  liberal,  and,  as  he  was  accounted,  latitudinarian, 
as  he  grew  older  and  more  acquainted  with  the  world  of  men. 
For  this,  like  Tillotson,  he  suffered  persecution,  but  now  his 
works  are  well  esteemed  by  the  whole  church.  He  rightly 
acted  the  important  office  of  a  bishop.  "  I  venerate  the 
memory  of  this  good  prelate,"  says  Lady  Huntingdon,*  a  non- 
*  Her  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  40. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHUROHMANSHIP.  187 

conformist,  "  and  I  love  those  who  have  descended  from  him, 
praying  that  the  hke  faith  which  was  in  him  may  be  in  them 
also :"  and  from  his  daughter,  an  excellent  woman,  her  lady- 
ship learnt,  that  "  the  bishop,  from  the  zealous  care  of  his 
diocese,  made  it  a  rule  yearly  to  visit  the  various  parishes  of 
which  it  was  composed  ;  and  treated  with  the  most  distin- 
guished regard  such  ministers  as  were  eminent  for  their  piety, 
and  most  attentive  in  their  care  of  the  souls  of  the  people." 
It  is  a  good  sentence  that  he  wrote  :  "  A  greater  disparage- 
ment to  the  Christian  religion  can  not  be  imagined,  than  to 
propose  the  hopes  of  God's  mercy  and  pardon  barely  upon  be- 
lieving, tvithout  a  life  sidtable  to  the  rules  it  gives  tis.''^ 
Of  course,  when  the  Church  of  England  states  that  we  are 
justified  by  faith  only,  she  means  a  fruitful  faith,  a  faith 
which  worketh  by  love  ;  so  that  we  are  really  justified,  not 
by  mere  belief  only,  and  not  by  works  alone,  but  by  faith  and 
works  united  ;  and  if  we  believe  not  till  we  come  to  our 
death-beds,  and,  like  the  thief  on  the  cross,  can  perform  no 
good  works,  if  we  believe  God,  it  must  be  left  to  Him  to  ac- 
count it  as  righteousness  or  not,  even  as  it  seemeth  fit  to  His 
good  pleasure ;  albeit  nearly  up  to  the  last  moments  of  life 
some  evidences  of  a  real  faith  may  be  afforded  through  works, 
the  work  of  patience,  it  may  be,  to  our  souls.  Again,  in  al- 
luding to  "  forgive  us  our  trespasses,"  and  "  give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread,"  being  standing  petitions,  he  says,  "  We  sin 
daily,  and  do  always  need  a  pardon.  Upon  these  reasons 
we  conclude,  that  somewhat  of  the  man  enters  into  all  that 
men  do.''  But  this  sentence,  from  the  conclusion  of  the  His- 
tory of  his  own  Times,  should  be  engraven  on  the  mind  of 
every  minister  of  the  Church  of  England.  "  Maintaining 
arguments  for  more  power  than  we  have,  will  have  no  efiect, 
unless  the  world  see  that  we  make  a  good  use  of  the  authority 
already  in  our  hands.  It  is  with  the  clergy  as  with  princes : 
the  only  way  to  keep  the  prerogative  from  being  uneasy  to 
their  subjects,  and  being  disputed,  is  to  m/iyiage  it  2vhollij 
for  their  good  and  advantage.  Then  all  will  be  for  it, 
when  they  find  it  is  for  them.  Let  the  clergy  live  and  labor 
well,  and  they  luill  feel  as  much  autlwrity  tcill  follow  as 
*  Exposition  of  Article  XII. 


188  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CIIURCHMANSHIP. 

they  will  know  how  to  7nanage  well.  They  will  never  he 
secured  or  recovered  from  coiitempt,  hut  by  living,  and  labor- 
ing  as  they  ought."  What  sound  advice  is  this  to  princes 
and  pastors  I  Had  it  been  followed,  the  history  of  the  kings 
of  Enjjland  would  not  be  such  as  it  is;  Charles  the  First 
had  not  been  executed  ;  neither  would  the  spirit  of  revolution 
have  been  aroused  throughout  foreign  nations  in  the  year 
1848.  Our  own  blessed  queen  has  manifestly  been  trained 
to  observe  this  principle  as  propounded  by  the  bishop.  But 
to  clergymen  it  is  of  most  essential  service  :  he  who  cares 
for  others  will  be  cared  for  himself  In  rebuke,  as  well  as 
in  guidance,  the  respect  and  love  of  the  people  is  of  paramount 
importance.  Let  a  touching  anecdote  illustrate  this  :*  A 
clergyman,  of  a  remarkable  spirit  of  love,  sharply  rebuked,  in 
the  presence  of  a  clerical  friend,  a  parishioner  for  gross  mis- 
conduct. The  severity  of  the  reproof  astonished  his  friend, 
who  could  not  help  declaring,  that  in  his  own  case,  with  one 
of  his  people,  he  should  have  expected  an  irreconcilable 
breach.  The  answer  was  the  result  of  Christian  wisdom  and 
experience  :  "  Oh,  my  friend,  when  there  is  love  in  the  heart, 
you  may  say  any  thing  I"  No  man  more  than  Dr.  Johnson 
himself,  as  we  have  seen,  respected  a  laborious  clergyman, 
and  reprobated  a  careless  one.  The  man  that  attended  on 
the  death-bed  of  Rochester  ;  that  wrote  a  letter  of  just  cen- 
sure to  his  king,  and  accompanied  Russell  to  the  scaflbld  ; 
who  was  a  good  pastor  and  good  bishop,  could  he  but  have 
known  him,  would,  we  may  conjecture,  have  obtained  Dr. 
Johnson's  regard.  He  could  not  like  his  politics,  but  he 
would  have  approved  of  many  of  his  writings.  Take  this 
true  sentence  :  "  It  is  the  glory  of  the  church,  that  in  her 
disputes  on  both  hands,  as  well  with  those  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  as  with  those  that  separate  from  her,  she  has  both  the 
doctrine  and  the  constitution  of  the  primitive  church  on  her 
side."t 

Dr.   Doddridge  was  mentioned  by  Johnson  as   being  the 
author  of  one  of  the  finest  epigrams  in  the  English  language 

*  It  is  told  in  Bridge's  "  Cliristian  Ministry,"  p.  654. 
t  "Pastoral    Care,"    in    Clergyman's   Instructor,   ch.   iv.    p.    139. 
4th  ed. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CIIURCHMANSHIP.  189 

It  consists  of  a  sacred  rendering  of  his  family  motto,  Dum, 
vivimns  vivamus.  But  this  was  praise  i^iven  to  a  very 
small  thing,  when  we  consider  the  greatness  and  excellency  of 
his  works,  especially  his  "  Family  Expositor,"  and  "  The  Rise 
and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul."  Although  he  would 
place  baptismal  regeneration  in  the  shade,  for  he  evidently 
confounds  regeneration  with  conversion,  yet  one  sentence  or 
two  gives  a  loophole  through  which  all  the  maintainors  of 
baptismal  regeneration  may  find  a  way  of  escape  from  his 
general  view  of  regeneration.  He  was  not  averse  to  forms 
of  prayer,  and  such  forms  he  wrote.  The  learned  Bishop 
Warburton  was  one  of  his  correspondents.  Croker  mentions 
that  some  of  his  letters  have  been  recently  published,  with  no 
great  advantage  to  his  fame.  Strange,  that  in  his  funeral 
sermon  on  the  enthusiast,  Colonel  Gardiner,  he  should  have 
deliberately  declared,  that  "it  was  hard  for  him  to  say  where, 
but  in  the  book  of  God,  the  Colonel  found  his  example,  or 
M^here  he  had  left  Ids  equal/"  Doddridge  was  always 
warm-hearted,  and  such  thoroughly  kind  and  devoted  men 
are  apt  to  go  too  far.  He  died  a  serene  death,  and  felt  no 
concern  for  his  departure,  beyond  the  grief  it  would  occasion 
his  wife  ;  but  even  in  allusion  to  this,  he  said,  "  I  can  cheer- 
fully leave  my  dear  Mrs.  Doddridge  a  widow  in  a  strange 
land  (at  Lisbon),  if  such  be  the  appointment  of  our  heavenly 
Father."  Thus  this  true  saint  would  have  have  pleased  an 
apostle,  for  he  was  not  "without  natural  affection." 

Of  Bishop  Warburton's  abilities  Dr  Johnson  thought  most 
highly.  Perhaps  his  strong  sense  of  gratitude  prejudiced  him 
in  some  degree  toward  the  liking  of  this  learned  man,  "  He 
praised  me  at  a  time,"  he  said,  "  when  praise  was  of  value  to 
me."  This  was  spoken  in  relation  to  encomiastic  rem.arks  of 
Warburton  on  some  criticisms  on  Macbeth,  put  forth  by  Dr. 
Johnson.  Sir  John  Hawkins  tells  us,  that  Johnson  being 
asked,  "  Whether  he  had  ever  been  in  company  with  Dr. 
Warburton,"  answered,  "  I  never  saw  him  till  one  evening, 
about  a  week  ago,  at  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph's  :  at  first  he 
looked  surlily  at  me  ;  but  after  we  had  jostled  into  conversa- 
tion he  took  me  to  a  window,  asked  me  some  questions,  and 
before  we  parted  was  so  well  pleased  with  me  that  he  patted 


190  DR.  JOHNSOxN'S  CHURCllMANSHIP. 

me."  "You,  always,  sir,  preserved  a  great  respect  for  him?  " 
"Yes,  and  justly  :  when  as  yet  I  was  in  no  favor  with  the 
world,  he  spoke  well  of  me,  and  I  hope  I  never  forgot  the 
obligation."  The  bishop  was  greatly  pleased  with  Johnson's 
high-spirited  letter  to  Lord  Chesterfield,  in  which  he  rejected 
that  nobleman's  condescensions  in  a  manner  worthy  a  noble 
son  of  literature  ;  for  such  language  was  in  accordance  with 
the  bishop's  own  meekness  of  mind  ;  and  then  Warburton 
sent  a  message  of  congratulation  to  our  leviathan.  Dr.  John 
son  was  visibly  pleased,  because  a  word  of  praise  from  such  a 
man  was  of  great  account  in  his  estimation.  At  a  time  when 
Edwards's  Canons  on  Criticism  appeared,  aud  his  eulogizers 
would  have  exalted  him  to  a  par  with  Warburton,  "  Nay," 
said  Johnson,  "  there  is  no  proportion  between  the  two  men; 
they  must  not  be  named  together.  A  fly,  sir,  may  sting  a 
stately  horse"  (Edwards  had  sharply  criticised  Warburton), 
"  and  make  him  wince  ;  but  one  is  but  an  insect,  and  the 
other  is  a  horse  still." 

When  George  the  Third  observed  to  Johnson,  that  he 
supposed  he  must  have  read  a  great  deal,  he  said,  in  his  reply, 
that  he  had  not  read  much,  compared  with  Dr.  Warburton. 
And  then  the  king  said,  that  he  had  heard  Dr.  Warburton 
was  a  man  of  such  general  knowledge,  that  you  could  scarce 
talk  with  him  on  any  subject  on  which  he  was  not  qualified 
to  speak  ;  and  that  his  learning  resembled  Garrick's  acting 
in  its  universality.  The  conversation  thence  turning  on  the 
controversy  between  Warburton  and  Lowth,  Johnson  remark- 
ed, "  Warburton  has  most  general,  most  scholastic  learning; 
Lowth  is  the  more  correct  scholar." 

Warburton  wrote  to  Bishop  Hurd  in  an  unfriendly  way  of 
Johnson,  in  regard  to  certain  criticisms  ;  and  Johnson,  we 
know,  as  Dr.  Parr  says,  "was  of  literary  merit  a  sagacious, 
but  a  most  severe  judge  ;"  yet  we  have  no  reason  to  think 
that  these  great  men  did  not  admire  each  other's  talents :  in 
short,  Warburton  said  of  Johnson,  "I  admire  him,  but  lean 
not  bear  his  style  ; "  and  Johnson  being  told  of  this,  said, 
•'That  is  exactly  my  case  as  to  him."  And  yet,  Boswell  in- 
forms us,  the  manner  in  which  he  expressed  his  admiration 
of  the  fertility  of  Warburton's  genius,  and  of  the  variety  of 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  191 

his  materials,  was,  "  The  table  is  always  full,  sir.  He  brings 
things  from  the  north  and  the  south,  and  from  every  quarter. 
In  his  'Divine  Legation'  you  are  always  entertained.  He 
carries  you  round  and  round,  without  carrying  you  forward  to 
the  point ;  but  then,  you  have  no  wish  to  be  carried  forward." 
And  he  said  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Strahan,  "  Warburton  is,  perhaps, 
the  last  man  who  has  written  with  a  mind  full  of  reading 
and  reflection." 

In  the  Life  of  Pope,  Johnson  writes  of  Warburton's  wonder- 
ful abilities,  and  the  haughty  confidence  which  these  abilities 
gave  him  :  for,  in  truth,  he  was,  as  Gibbon  styled  him,  "the 
dictator  and  tyrant  of  the  world  of  literature."  At  the  time 
that  he  wrote  his  famous  remarks  on  behalf  of  Pope's  "Essay 
on  Man,"  refuting  the  idea  that  it  favored  fatalism.  Pope 
himself  wrote  to  him,  and  said  in  his  letter,  "You  have  made 
my  system  as  clear  as  I  ought  to  have  done,  and  could  not. 
It  is,  indeed,  the  same  system  as  mine,  but  illustrated  with  a 
ray  of  your  own,  as  they  say  our  natural  body  is  the  same 
still  when  it  is  glorified."  Pope  afterward  lived  in  the  great- 
est intimacy  with  him  ;  and  Warburton  was  made  a  bishop 
solely  from  the  vastness  of  his  literary  and  theological  talents. 
Bishop  Newton,  in  quoting  from  Warburton's  "Divine  Lega- 
tion,"* speaks  of  him  as  one  "who  improves  every  subject 
that  he  handles." 

Warburton  had  many  opponents,  for  he  attacked  many 
men  of  eminence.  Neither  could  he  at  all  like  the  ideas  and 
feelings  of  the  enthusiastic  followers  of  religion.  The  biog- 
rapher of  Lady  Huntingdon  speaks  roughly  of  him,  as  he 
does  too  of  many  others  undeservedly;  he  says,t  "■icith  his 
characteristic  rudeness,  he  pronounced  her  an  incurable  en- 
thusiast :  for  with  him  all  personal  experience  of  a  divine 
witness  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  heart,  was  rank  enthusi- 
asm." And  yet,  Warburton  writes,  "  In  the  promulgation 
of  a  new  religion,  besides  those  marks  of  truth  arising  from 
the  reasonableness  and  purity  of  the  doctrine,  which  show  it 
worthy  of  God,  to  prove  it  actually  came  from  Him  there  is 
need  of  certain  miraculous  gifts,  which  the  Holy  Spirit  im- 

*  Dissert,  on  the  Prophecies,  vol.  i.  p.  85. 
t  Vol.  i.  p.  443. 


192  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

parts  to  those  with  whom  he  then  condescends  to  dwell. 
But  the  'peculiar  office  of  the  Holy  Sjnrit  is  the  sanctijica- 
tion  of  the  heart."^  True  we  may  find,  in  the  perversity  of 
man,  new  matter  of  glory  to  God.  "  And  we  bless  the  hand," 
he  says,  "  which  turned  the  avarice  of  a  furious  friar  (Lu- 
ther), and  the  luxury  of  a  debauched  monarch  (Henry  VIII), 
from  their  natural  mischiefs,  to  become  instruments  of  the 
choicest  blessings — the  recovery  of  letters,  and  the  restoration 
of  religion." 

And  yet,  when  we  see  what  enthusiasm  has  achieved  in 
the  civil  world,  we  may  well  be  tempted  to  seek  its  warm 
help  in  the  promotion  of  a  religion  which  is  militant  here  on 
earth.  An  eminent  writer  of  Essays,  after  expressing  his 
wish  that  enthusiasm  may  be  expelled  from  its  religious  do- 
minions, but  maintained  in  its  civil  possessions,  looking  upon 
it,  in  all  other  points  but  that  of  religion,  to  be  a  very  neces- 
sary turn  of  mind,  says:  "  To  strike  this  spirit  out  of  the 
human  constitution,  to  reduce  things  to  their  precise  philo- 
sophical standard,  would  be  to  check  some  of  the  main  wheels 
of  society,  and  to  fix  half  the  world  in  an  useless  apathy."! 
True,  but  still  really  great  hearts  and  minds  are  not  enthusi- 
astic. Nelson  had  a  great  heart,  not  an  enthusiastic  one  : 
Wellington  and  Napoleon  were  never  enthusiasts,  although 
so  many  around  them  might  be  made  so  by  them :  Wesley's 
disposition  was  not  enthusiastic  :  these  men  were  possessed  of 
a  more  enduring  principle  than  enthusiasm  could  have  en- 
gendered. Warburton  liked  warmth  and  pathos,  and  de- 
cides, in  the  case  of  preaching,  that  '•  a  pathetic  address  to 
the  passions  and  affections  of  penitent  hearers,  is  perhaps 
the  most  operative  of  all  the  various  species  of  instruction." 
What  can  exceed  the  extreme  pathos  of  our  Lord's  language  ? 
what  surpass  the  afiection  of  His  actions  ?  and  yet,  there  is 
nothing  of  the  enthusiast  displayed  in  the  whole  course  of  His 
marvelous  career.  In  the  Church  of  Rome,  we  may  say, 
that  feelings  of  enthusiasm  are  carried  to  their  highest  pitch, 
and  extremes  nowhere  more  completely  meet  than  in  the  ex- 
temporaneous addresses  of  the  mendicant  friar,  and  the  illit- 
erate ranter.  Warmth  of  heart,  guided  by  intelligence  and 
*  Matt,  xxiii.  2.  3,  t  Melmoth 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  193 

right  sense,  is  always  to  be  desired  in  the  reUgious  life ; 
indeed  there  is  little  earnestness  of  thought  and  purpose 
without  it. 

There  will  always  be  different  opinions  entertained  in  re- 
gard to  the  excellences,  intellectual  or  moral,  of  great  men. 
Johnson's  praise  of  Warburton,  a  portion  only  of  which  is 
given,  is  exceeded  by  that  of  Bishop  Newton.  "  He  was, 
indeed,  a  great  genius,"  says  the  bishop,  "  of  the  most  extens- 
ive reading,  of  the  most  retentive  memory,  of  the  most  copi- 
ous invention,  of  the  liveliest  imagination,  of  the  sharpest 
discernment,  of  the  quickest  wit,  and  of  the  readiest  and  hap- 
piest application  of  his  immense  knowledge  to  the  present 
subject  and  occasion."  In  private  life  "he  was  excellent 
and  admirable,  both  as  a  companion  and  a  friend  ;"  in  the 
latter  character,  he  "  laid  open  his  very  heart  ;  and  the  at- 
tribute which  he  was  pleased  to  give  to  Mr.  Pope,  of  being 
the  sold  of  friendship,  was  more  justly  applicable  to  him, 
and  more  properly  his  own  !  His  works  are  described  as  a 
KTTif-ia  eg  del,  "  a  possession  for  ever."  Bishop  Newton  pro- 
ceeds to  draw  a  comparison,  or  rather  a  contrast,  between 
Warburton  and  Dr.  Jortin,  much  to  the  advantage  of  the 
former,  but  saying  of  each  of  these  extraordinary  men,  "  Their 
superior  excellences  will  live  in  the  mouths  and  memories 
of  men." 

So  conspicuously  eminent  was  Warburton's  talent,  that  on 
his  publishing  a  dissertation  on  the  origin  of  Books  of  Chivalry, 
&:c.  which  Pope  tells  him  he  had  not  got  over  two  paragraphs 
of,  before  he  cried  out,  Aut  Erasmus,  aut  Diabolus;  "I  knew 
you,"*=  he  adds,  "  as  certainly  as  the  ancients  did  the  gods, 
by  the  first  pace,  and  the  very  gait.  I  have  not  a  moment 
to  express  myself  in,  but  could  not  omit  this  which  delighted 
me  so  much." 

After  reading  these  (and  still  greater  encomiums  which 
might  be  adduced  from  the  learned  Bishop  Hurds  Life  of 
Warburton),  we  turn  to  the  remarks  of  the  Rev.  William 
Jones  of  Nayland,  and  obtain  another  view  of  this  renowned 
theolajrian.  This  acute  and  sterling  v.-riter  describes  Warbur- 
ton's  books  as  such  that  •'  have  a  great  flash  of  learning,  but 

*  Letter  113  to  Mr.  Warburton,  in  Pope's  Works. 
I 


194  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHiMANSIIIP. 

with  little  solidity  and  less  piety.  To  the  purity  of  Christian 
literature  they  have  certainly  done,  and  are  still  doing,  much 
hurt."  Harder  things  are  said  of  Warburton,  which  need 
not  be  related,  except  that  Bishop  Newton  and  Mr.  Jones 
differ  in  their  prophetical  discernment,  for  the  latter  thinks 
the  Christian  world  will  not  derive  any  great  harm,  "because 
it  is  apprehended,  the  reading  of  Bishop  Warburton' s  books 
will  hereafter  be  much  less  than  it  hath  been."  It  is  some- 
what remarkable  that  this  animadversion  proceeds  from  a 
high  church  source,  while  the  praises  of  Bishop  Newton  may 
be  said  to  emanate  from  an  opposite  quarter.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind,  that  Mr.  Jones  could  not  relish  the  criticisms 
of  Bishop  Warburton,  on  the  theological  principles  of  John 
Hutchinson,  Esq.,  the  famous  Mosaic  philosopher,  the  friends 
of  whom  dreaded  the  ill  effects  of  the  doctor's  criticisms 
"  from  the  boldness  of  the  man,  and  the  popularity  of  his 
books. "^ 

Dr.  Johnson  liked  Bishop  Hurd,  a  friend  of  Warburton's, 
but  of  rather  a  Whiggish  cast  in  politics.  This  appears  in 
his  celebrated  "  Moral  and  Political  Dialogues,"  although 
much  modified  in  a  subsequent  edition.  When  his  lordship 
declined  the  honor  of  becoming  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Johnson  said,  "  I  am  glad  he  did  not  go  to  Lambeth  :  for 
after  all,  I  fear  he  is  a  Whig  in  his  heart."  We  need  not 
in  this  place  descant  on  Johnson  opinion  of  Whigs  and  Tories. 
However,  after  having  at  one  time  stated  that  Hurd  was  one 
of  those  men  who  account  for  every  thing  systematically  {too 
systematically,  he  meant),  he  said,  at  another,  "  Hurd,  sir,  is 
a  man  whose  acquaintance  is  a  valuable  acquisition." 

Both  in  Hannah  More's  and  Lady  Huntingdon's  Memoirs, 
Bishop  Hurd  is  mentioned  with  approbation.!  In  speaking 
of  the  strong  sentiments  of  piety  that  imbued  the  mind  of 
George  the  Third,  yet  reprobating  the  conduct  of  those  about 
him,  who,  in  their  zeal  to  amuse  him  sought  to  M^eaken  his 

*  See  life  of  Bishop  Home,  by  Rev.  W.  Jones,  M.A.  of  Nayland  ; 
in  the  sixth  volume  of  Jones  of  Nayland's  Works,  p.  47,  48.  Mr.  Hutch- 
inson was  an  opponent  of  Dr.  Woodward  on  natural  history,  and  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  in  philosophy. 

t  Memoirs  of  Hannah  More,  vol.  iii.  p.  240. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  195 

religious  habits,  and  draw  him  off  from  his  wonted  strict  ob- 
servance of  the  Lord's  day,  Hannah  More  says,  "  I  wish  any 
one  had  the  honest  courage  to  tell  him  a  little  circumstance 
respecting  a  prelate,  whom  he  has  always  loved  and  honored 
above  the  whole  bench,  the  Bishop  of  Worcester.  The  king 
had  last  summer  intended  a  visit  to  his  venerable  aged  friend, 
and  a  letter  was  sent  to  fix  the  day  of  his  coming  to  him. 
The  bishop  happened  to  receive  this  letter  on  a  Sunday,  and 
no  entreaties  of  his  family  could  prevail  on  him  to  open  it 
until  the  next  day,  lest  the  knowledge  that  the  king  was  on 
the  point  of  coming  should  agitate  his  spirits,  and  indispose 
him  for  the  duties  of  the  day." 

In  the  Memoirs  of  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,^  we  are 
told  that  the  venerable  Dr.  Hurd,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  being 
in  the  habit  of  preaching  frequently,  had  observed  a  poor 
man  remarkably  attentive,  and  made  him  some  little  present. 
After  a  while,  he  missed  his  humble  auditor,  and  meeting 
him,  said,  "  John,  how  is  it  that  I  do  not  see  you  in  the  aisle 
as  usual  ?"  John,  with  some  hesitation,  replied,  "  My  Lord, 
I  hope  you  will  not  be  offended,  and  I  will  tell  you  the  truth, 
I  went  the  other  day  to  hear  the  Methodists,  and  I  under- 
stand their  plain  words  so  much  better,  that  I  have  attended 
them  ever  since."  The  bishop  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket, 
and  gave  him  a  guinea,  with  words  to  this  effect :  "  God 
bless  you,  and  go  where  you  can  receive  the  greatest  profit 
to  your  soul."  This  will  commonly  be  accounted  noble  of 
the  bishop,  and  yet,  we  may  suppose  that  he  gave  not  the 
poor  man  a  guinea  because  he  went  to  hear  the  Methodists, 
but  because  he  saw  in  him  (apart  from  their  scheme  of  divi- 
sion), a  true  simplicity  of  faith,  and  sincerity  of  character. 
And  it  showed  also  that  the  bishop  knew  what  was  in  man — 
in  poor  uninstructed  man  ;  for  very  many  of  the  humbler  classes 
know  nothing  of  the  reasons  and  arguments  in  favor  of  the  supe- 
rior claims  of  the  church,  and  go  to  hear  other  preachers  with- 
out the  slightest  hostility  to  the  church,  simply  because  they 
think  it  all  very  good  that  they  hear,  so  that  it  be  something 
of  the  Gospel.  Indeed,  in  many  cases,  they  themselves  have 
been  the  very  first  to  acquaint  their  clergyman  of  the  fact  of 

Vol.  i.  p.  18. 


196  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

such  attendance,  thinking  the  announcement  sure  of  gaining 
his  cordial  approbation ;  neither  in  many  instances,  wherein 
the  willfully  schismatic  or  presumptive  spirit  has  been  want- 
ing, but  all  is  humbleness  and  candor,  have  they  been  dis- 
appointed. 

Dr.  Johnson,  who  loved  the  virtue  of  gentleness  in  others, 
and  thought  it  the  first  of  recommendations  of  a  man's  char- 
acter, would  have  liked  to  have  listened  to  Bishop  Hurd's 
description  of  true,  in  contradistinction  to  artificial  politeness, 
as  being  "  modest,  unpretending,  generous.  It  aj)j)ears  as 
little  as  may  be,  and  when  it  does  a  courtesy,  would  \Adll- 
ingly  conceal  it.  It  chooses  silently  to  forego  its  own  claims, 
not  officiously  to  withdraw  them.  It  engages  a  man  to 
prefer  his  neighbor  to  himself;  because  he  really  esteems 
him  ;  because  he  is  tender  of  his  reputation  ;  because  he 
thinks  it  more  manly,  more  Christian,  to  descend  a  little 
himself,  than  to  degrade  another." 

Bishops  Watson  and  Home  he  admired.  The  "  Chemical 
Essays"  of  the  former  met  with  his  approval  more  than  the 
political  and  ecclesiastical  opinions  advanced  by  his  lordship. 
Never  did  there  breathe  a  more  zealous  supporter  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty  ;  and  how  many  of  his  ecclesiastical 
reforms  have  passed,  and  are  passing,  into  law  I  Still  have 
the  difficulties  intermingled  with  private  patronage,  and  the 
boundaries  of  parishes,  to  be  overcome  ;  and  hence  a  wish  of  ^ 
the  bishop  (the  better  ministration  of  the  offices  of  the  church 
in  districts  which  should  be  less  extensive)  to  be  fulfilled, 
which,  as  much  as  any  other,  is  engaging  the  attention  of 
church  reformers  in  this  day.  <'  Without  wishing,"  he  said, 
''  to  see  all  preferments  of  the  same  value,  I  shall  never 
cease  to  wish,  that  no  living  in  the  kingdom  may  be  so  small, 
as  to  render  it  necessary  for  any  man  to  have  two."  It  has 
been  insinuated,  that  because  this  bishop  held  the  poorest 
see,  therefore  he  was  so  ardent  in  bringing  about  an  equality, 
or  nearly  so,  of  the  episcopal  revenues.  But  no,  this  was  a 
weak  invention  of  the  enemy  :  yea,  "  an  enemy  hath  done 
this,"  he  might  have  exclaimed  in  Scriptural  language  ;  for 
it  was  the  evils  attendant  on  the  translation  of  bishops  that 
he  endeavored    to  destroy,  and  both  in  church  and  in   the 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  197 

state,  his  constant  advice  was  to  remove  such  rotten  parts 
of  the  glorious  fabric  of  civil  and  religious  freedom,  as  daily- 
invite  the  attacks  of  its  enemies  ;  and  by  timely  reformation 
to  preserve  the  mighty  edifice,  the  work  of  ages,  and  the 
envy  of  the  world,  from  being  irretrievably  injured  by  the 
rude  hand  of  popular  discontent,  of  fanatical  zeal,  or  republi- 
can violence  I 

Of  that  accomplished  and  elegant  divine,  Bishop  Home, 
so  truthful  withal,  and  sincere,  it  is  almost  unnecessary  to 
speak,  so  many  must  be  acquainted  intimately  with  his  dis- 
courses, and  all  with  his  memoirs,  as  written  admirably  by 
his  friend  and  companion,  Jones  of  Nay  land.  In  regard- 
ing the  primitive  orthodoxy,  piety,  poverty,  and  depressed 
state  of  the  Episcopalian  Church  in  Scotland,  he  thought, 
that,  "  if  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  were  upon  earth, 
and  it  were  put  to  his  choice  with  what  denomination  of 
Christians  he  would  communicate,  the  preference  would  prob- 
ably be  given  to  the  Episcopalians  of  Scotland,  as  most  like 
to  the  people  he  had  been  used  to''  ^ 

There  is  a  curious  anecdote  of  very  modern  date,  told  in 
reference  to  the  poverty  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Scotland. 
On  one  occasion,  when  a  nobleman's  family  were  leaving 
that  country  for  England,  and  arrangements  were  being 
made  for  the  servants  of  his  lordship's  establishment  to  follow 
in  a  few  days,  they  begged  permission  to  stay  one  day  longer, 
because  it  was  fixed  for  a  Confirmation.  The  day  arrived  ; 
the  servants  were  arrayed  in  their  best  attire,  hoping  to 
witness  all  the  company,  and  the  presence  of  the  bishop,  as 
seen  at  an  English  Confirmation ;  time  passed  on,  a  few  young 
people,  decent  but  shoeless  enough,  began  to  assemble  :  now 
and  then  a  peasant  and  farmer  arrived,  but  not  yet  the 
bishop.  Of  every  fresh  comer  a  servant  asked,  "  Where  is 
the  bishop  ?"  To  a  little  individual  in  a  rusty  coat,  and 
mounted  on  a  rough  shclty,  the  question  was  eagerly  put, 
"  When  will  the  bishop  arrive  ?"  "In  truth,"  answers  th^ 
rider,  but  in  broad  Scotch  dialect,  "I  am  all  the  bishop  you'll 
see  to-day."  And  his  lordship  smilingly  trotted  on,  to  the 
utter  amazement  of  the  pampered  menials  of  the  nobleman. 
*  Jones  of  Nay  land's  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  141. 


198  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

Bishop  Home  died  as  he  had  lived.  Hannah  More  writes 
of  her  sister's  last  call,  when  he  was  actually  dying,  and  had 
just  received  the  sacrament  with  his  family,  with  extraordi- 
nary devotion  ;  and  says,  "  Every  text  he  repeated,  every 
word  he  uttered,  consisted  of  praise,  and  the  most  devout 
thankfulness.  He  took  leave  of  all  separately,  exhorted  and 
blessed  them."  His  man  told  her,  that  about  two  o'clock 
he  calmly  pronounced  the  words,  "  Blessed  Jesus  !"  stretched 
himself  out,  and  expired  with  the  utmost  tranquillity.  Such 
was  the  end  of  "  the  wise,  the  witty,  the  pleasant,  the  good 
Bishop  of  Norwich  :"  equaled  certainly  in  the  happiness  and 
serenity  of  his  final  departure  by  the  eminent  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, Dr.  Porteus. 

Jones  of  Nayland*  relates  a  circumstance  which  can  not 
fail  to  put  us  in  mind  of  the  extraordinary  dream  of  Lord 
Lyttelton,  to  whom  the  exact  minute  of  his  death  was  fore- 
told. On  the  Friday  before  the  bishop's  death,  while  his 
housekeeper  was  in  waiting  by  his  bedside,  he  asked  her  on 
what  day  of  the  week  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month 
would  fall?  She  answered,  on  Tuesday.  "Make  a  note 
of  that,"  said  he,  "  in  a  book,"  which,  to  satisfy  him,  she 
pretended  to  do.  This  proved  to  be  the  day  on  which  he 
died,  as  quietly  as  he  had  lived.  From  this  occurrence  a 
rumor  got  abroad,  as  if  he  had  received  some  forewarning  of 
the  time  of  his  death.  Jones  of  Nayland,  a  learned  and 
sagacious  man,  observes,  "  To  this  I  can  say  nothing  ;  but  I 
can  think  without  any  danger  of  being  mistaken,  that  if 
ever  there  was  a  man  in  these  latter  days,  who  was  worthy 
to  receive  from  above  any  unusual  testimony  due  to  superior 
piety,  he  ivas  that  man.''  Bishop  Home  died  about  twelve 
years  after  the  decease  of  Dr.  Johnson,  or  this  incident  would 
probably  have  arrested  his  attention,  and  called  forth  a 
remark  stamped  with  the  peculiar  reflections  of  his  own 
mind  on  supernatural  intimations. 

We  may  be  right  sure  that  Dr.  Johnson  never  could  bear 
the  writings  of  Dr.  Priestley,  except  such  as  had  relation  to 
science  only.  It  appears  that  chemistry  was  always  an  in- 
teresting study  with  Dr.  Johnson.  While  he  was  in  Wilt- 
*  In  his  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  159. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  1^)9 

shire  he  attended  some  experiments  made  by  a  physician, 
and  tVequcnt  mention  being  made  of  Dr.  Priestley,  he  knit 
his  brows,  and  in  a  stern  manner  inquired,  "  Why  do  we 
hear  so  much  of  Dr.  Priestley  ?"  lie  was  very  properly 
answered,  "  Sir,  because  we  are  indebted  to  him  for  these 
important  discoveries."  On  this  Dr.  Johnson  appeared  well 
content,  and  replied,  "  Well,  well,  I  believe  we  are  ;  and  let 
every  man  have  the  honor  he  has  merited."  So  strong  were 
his  feelings  against  any  one  whom  he  thought  to  be  advoca- 
ting pernicious  principles,  that  he  could  hardly  endure  his 
society,  and  on  some  occasions  would  leave  the  room  ;  yet  he 
did  meet  Dr.  Priestley  at  dinner  without  rudeness.  Johnson 
and  Wilkes  also  met  together  with  much  cordiality,  although 
the  former  must  have  abhorred  the  politics  of  the  latter. 
Priestley's  rule,  as  a  necessitarian,  was  to  hate  no  man ;  for 
he  believed  that  every  man  was  by  necessity  just  what  he 
was,  and  could  behave  toward  himself,  or  any  other  man,  in 
no  other  way  than  he  did  ;  regarding  therefore  the  hatred 
of  man  toward  man  as  a  matter  ordered  by  the  Almighty, 
and  such  as,  seeing  it  could  not  be  avoided,  neither  should  it 
be  condemned.  From  such  a  doctrine  Warburton  rescued 
Pope,  although  the  latter  was  not  really  a  necessitarian  ; 
but  Priestley,  both  as  a  Calvinist  and  a  decided  Socinian, 
always  adhered  to  this  idea  of  philosophical  necessity.  The 
burning  of  his  house  and  library  at  Birmingham  is  well 
known,  a  cowardly  act,  and  one  akin  to  what  might  have 
been  St.  Paul's  fate,  when,  in  order  to  destroy  the  doctrines, 
they  would  destroy  the  man.  Dr.  Priestley  may  have 
thought  that  necessity  impelled,  and  hence  gave  a  right 
to  a  mob  of  men  to  act  thus ;  but  it  is  a  certain  truth, 
and  one  always  acted  upon  by  the  law  of  man,  which 
proceeds  from  the  law  of  God,  that  no  man  has  a  right  to 

DO  WRONG. 

Of  Dr.  Priestley's  theological  works,  Dr.  Johnson  remark- 
ed, "  that  they  tended  to  unsettle  every  thing  and  yet  settled 
nothing."  In  truth,  they  only  settled  this  thing,  namely, 
that  if  Socinianism  were  universally  embraced,  a  millennium 
of  happiness  would  follow  ;  no  more  superstitious  respect  for 
kings  and  priests  ;   no  more  dispute  in  polemics  ;  no  more 


200  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

Avar  on  any  scale  at  all  :  such,  at  least,  is  his  view  in  his 
celebrated  letter  to  Edmund  Burke.  Jones  of  Nayland  has 
given  to  the  world  "  A  small  Whole-length  of  Dr.  Priest- 
ley," ill  which  he  criticises  with  calmness  and  reason  his 
style,  his  politics,  his  feelings,  logic,  religion,  and  philosophy : 
and  from  passages  in  this  estimable  clergyman's  Life  of 
Bishop  Home,  we  find  that  both  himself  and  the  bishop 
thought  poorly  of  the  talents  of  the  dissenting  doctor,  and 
certainly  disliked  all  his  principles.  He  was  possessed  of 
great  cleverness  and  sagacity  in  philosophical  experiments, 
but  was  not  a  man  of  profound  learning  ;  yet  "  his  vanity 
made  him  believe  that  he  was  wise  enough  to  enlighten,  and 
powerful  enough  to  disturb  the  world."*  Dr.  Johnson  is  said 
to  have  spoken  his  opinion  of  the  doctor,  to  Mr.  Badcock  in 
these  words  :  "  You  have  proved  him  as  deficient  in  probity  as 
he  is  in  learning  ;"  and  he  seems  further  to  have  signified,! 
that  Priestley  had  borrowed  from  those  who  had  been  bor- 
rowers themselves,  and  did  not  know  that  the  mistakes  he 
adopted  had  been  rectified  by  others.  He  seems  to  have 
been  endued  with  much  urbanity  and  gentleness  of  disposi- 
tion, and  to  have  been  one,  who,  in  the  midst  of  stirring 
controversies,  felt  little  or  no  hostility  to  opponents,  but 
rather  converted  them,  while  they  retained  their  antipathies 
to  his  opinions,  into  personal  friends.  This  is  one  of 
the  best  traits  in  any  man's  character,  and  will  have  its 
meed. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Parnell,  like  other  of  our  poets,  Collins  and 
Gray,  has  written  little,  but  that  little  has  been  long  and 
admiringly  preserved.  Johnson's  memoir  of  him  is  short, 
because  Goldsmith  had  undertaken  the  task  before,  so  he 
contents  himself  with  paying  great  compliments  to  the  bio- 
grapher :  "His  criticism,"  though  he  does  partially  difier 
from  it  in  this  case,  he  says,  "it  is  seldom  safe  to  contra- 
dict." His  poem,  "  The  Hermit,"  finds  a  place  in  nearly 
all  collections  of  poetry,  while  his  smaller  pieces,  some 
of  which   are  elegantly  composed,   are   less  known.      This 


*  Jones's  Life  of  Home,  p.  133. 

t  Gentleman's  Magazine,  July,  1785. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  201 

stanza  gives  a  true  idea  of  youthful  freedom  from  care  and 
sorrow : 

"  Ask  gliding  waters,  if  a  tear 

or  mine  increased  their  stream  ? 
Or  ask  the  flying  gales,  if  e'er 
I  lent  one  sigh  to  them  ?"' 

And  do  we  not  conceive  the  fairies  at  work  with  their  wonted 

mystery  : 

"  Withouten  hands  the  dishes  fly, 
The  glasses  with  a  wish  come  nigh, 
And  with  a  wish  retire." 

He  is  said  to  have  been  a  bad  prose  writer,  and  yet  his 
Visions  found  a  place  in  the  Spectator  and  Guardian,  in  the 
pages  of  which  periodicals  many  must  have  read  them, 
especially  No.  460^  in  the  former,  without  knowing  who 
miofht  be  the  author.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  whose 
exertions  were  inflamed  by  hopes  of  preferment,  and  with 
changes  in  high  places  he  changed,  quitting  the  party  of 
Addison,  Congreve,  and  Steele,  for  that  of  Swift,  Pope,  Gay, 
and  Arbuthnot.  Pope,  in  his  dedication  of  Parnell's  poems 
to  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  pictures  the  deceased  poet  as  one,  in 
contrariety  to  his  sublunary  existence, 

"  Who  careless,  now,  of  interest,  fame,  or  fate, 
Perhaps  forgets  that  Oxford  e'er  was  great : 
Or  deeming  meanest  what  we  greatest  call, 
Beholds  thee  glorious  only  in  thy  fall." 

It  is  a  pity  that,  after  having  expressed  this  fine  sentiment  on 
the  nothingness  of  our  earthly  cares  and  views.  Pope  should 
proceed  in  a  strain  of  fulsome  eulogy  of  the  earl,  although  it 
was  during  his  lordship's  descent  from  the  height  of  political 
power,  t 

*  Vanity,  the  Paradise  of  Fools  ;  a  Vision  of  her  and  her  Attendants. 

t  Pope  also  idolized  Bolingbroke.  He  used  to  speak  of  him  as  a 
beino-  of  superior  order,  that  had  condescended  to  visit  this  lower  world  : 
in  particular,  when  the  last  comet  appeared  and  approached  near  the 
earth,  he  told  some  of  his  acquaintance,  "  it  was  sent  only  to  convey 
Lord  Bolingbroke  home  again  :  just  as  a  stage  coach  stops  at  your 
door  to  take  up  a  passenger." — Warburton's  Essay  on  Pope. 

The  poet  was  something  of  a  man-worshiper,  for  he  quite  idpUzed 
Warburton,  showinir  him  exceeding  deference. 


202  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHxMANSHIP. 

How  affectingly  must  the  later  thoughts  of  our  poet  Camp- 
bell occur  to  us  in  this  place,  and  his  deadness  to  the  vanity 
of  posthumous  fame,  although  the  desire  of  such  fame  may 
be  entirely  virtuous,  <'  When  I  think,"  he  said  to  some 
friends,  "  of  the  existence  which  shall  commence  when  the 
stone  is  laid  above  my  head,  how  can  literary  fame  appear  to 
me — to  any  one — but  as  nothing?''  And  he  added,  with 
the  consciousness  of  a  Johnson  or  an  Addison,  "It  is  an  in- 
expressible comfort  at  my  time  of  life,  to  be  able  to  look  back 
and  feel  that  1  have  not  written  one  line  against  religion  or 
virtue  /"* 

Poor  Parnell  became  intemperate  in  his  latter  years,  and 
Johnson,  with  his  usual  charity  in  stating  excuse,  where 
excuse  could  be  offered,  says,  "I  have  heard  it  imputed 
to  a  cause  more  likely  to  obtain  forgiveness  from  man- 
kind— the  untimely  death  of  a  darling  son  :  or,  as  others 
tell,  the  loss  of  his  wife,  who  died  in  the  midst  of  his 
expectations," 

Of  Dr.  Young,  the  author  of  the  ever  popular  "  Night 
Thoughts,"  Dr.  Johnson  entertained  a  high  opinion.  And 
of  this  poem,  written  and  obtaining  a  high  place  in  an  Au- 
gustan age  of  British  writers,  a  poem  which  Boswell  esteemed 
as  a  mass  of  the  grandest  and  richest  poetry  that  human 
genius  has  ever  produced,  and  the  very  best  book  for  season- 
ing the  mind  of  young  persons  with  thoughts  of  vital  religion^ 
Johnson  remarks,  "  The  power  is  in  the  whole  :  and  in  the 
whole  there  is  a  magnificence  like  that  ascribed  to  Chinese 
plantation,  the  magnificence  of  vast  extent  and  endless  divers- 
ity." He  thought  also  "  The  Universal  Passion"  to  be  truly 
a  great  performance.  Addison,  too,  has  written!  highly  of 
his  poem  on  the  Last  Day,  as  a  poem  manifesting  so  many 
noble  flights,  and  those  apparently  proceeding  from  a  well- 
disposed  heart,  that  the  author  can  not  be  too  much  esteemed 
or  encouraged. 

Whether  he  was  of  a  cheerful  or  pensive  turn  of  mind 
seems  to  have  become  a  matter  of  controversy.      Perhaps  he 

*  Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Campbell,  edited  by  William  Beattie, 
M.D. 

t  The  Englishman,  No.  11,  p.  53. 


DR.  JOHNSOxN'S  CIIURCHMANSHIP.  2U3 

was  both  :  probably  one  or  the  other  in  greater  proportion  at 
different  periods  of"  his  life,  and  like  Parnell,  he  never  was 
cheerful  after  his  wife's  death.  .Dr.  Johnson  blamed  him  for 
this,  and  yet  his  own  grief  on  the  loss  of  the  wedded  partner 
of  his  life  had  continued  for  a  long  while,  and  perhaps  it  was 
never  entirely  erased  from  his  mind. 

On  one  occasion,  when  traveling,  Boswell  obtained  an  in- 
vitation from  the  son  of  Young,*  who  still  resided  at  Welwyn, 
for  Dr.  Johnson  to  drink  tea  and  pass  the  evening.  He  ad- 
dressed his  host,  with  a  polite  bow,  thus,  "  Sir,  I  had  a  curi- 
osity to  come  and  see  this  place.  I  had  the  honor  to  know  that 
great  man  your  father."  They  walked  in  the  garden,  observ- 
ing a  row  of  trees  planted  by  Dr.  Young,  and  sat  in  the  sum- 
mer-house, on  the  outside  walls  of  which  were  the  inscriptions, 
"  Ambulantes  in  horto  audiebant  vocem  Dei,"  and,  in  reference 
to  a  brook  by  which  it  is  situated,  the  lines  of  Horace, 

"  Vivendi  recte  qui  prorogat  horam, 
Rusticus  expectat  dura  defluat  amnis :  at  ille 
Labitur,  et  labetur  in  omne  volubilis  Eevum." 

Once  when  walking  in  this  garden  w4th  Mr.  Langton,  Young 
remarked  cheerfully  enough  of  a  pensive  act,  "  Here  I  had 
put  a  handsome  sun-dial,  with  this  incription,  '  Eheu  fugaces  I' 

*  Dr.  Young  suffered  severely  in  his  last  illness.  It  is  pleasing  to 
know  that  he  forgave  his  son.  His  spirits  were  so  low,  and  his  nerves 
so  weak,  that  he  was  compelled  to  decline  an  interview  with  him :  but 
he  said,  '^  I  heartily  forgive  him:''  and  upon  mention  of  this,  he  gently 
lifted  up  his  hand,  and,  as  gently  letting  it  fall,  pronounced  these  words, 
'•  God  bless  him."  This  information  was  derived  from  his  curate  (My. 
Jones)  at  Welwyn. 

When  the  Rev.  Dr.  Webster  (grandson  to  Bishop  Sparrow)  forward- 
ed to  Young  his  book  "  On  Prayer  and  on  the  Sacrament,'"  which  was 
dedicated  to  the  admirable  Archbishop  Herring,  its  author  received  this 
note,  not  unworthy  of  preservation.  It  is  from  the  Life  of  Bowyer,  p. 
541  : 

"  Dear  Sir — I  have  read  over  your  Discourses  with  appetite,  and  I 
find  in  them  much  piety,  perspicuity,  eloquence,  and  usefulness.  God 
grant  them  all  the  success  they  deserve,  you  wish,  and  the  world  wants. 
INIost  assuredly,  devotion  is  the  balm  of  life  ;  and  no  man  cati  go  iin- 
waimded  to  the  grave.     1  am,  yours  affectionately, 

''  Edward  Young." 


20-1  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

which  (speaking  with  a  smile)  was  sadly  verified,  for  by  the 
next  morning  my  dial  had  been  carried  off." 

In  the  Lives  of  the  Poets  Dr.  Johnson  has  given  a  Memoir 
of  Young  by  the  Rev.  Herbert  Croft  (at  that  time  a  barris- 
ter at  law),  a  friend  of  the  poet's  son.  From  this  we  find 
that  he  was  not  rewarded  with  such  preferment  as  might  be 
considered  to  be  due  to  his  excellent  labors  until  very  late  in 
life,  but  then  he  was  a  politician,  "  the  lion  of  his  mastei 
Milton  ;"*  he  was  a  poet,  and  lived  retired  from  the  world ; 
and  rarely  do  great  men,  such  as  the  world  designates  pa 
trons,  go  about  carefully  in  search  of  merit,  but  rather  chooso 
to  promote  whatever  is  usefully  and  more  ostentatiously  pre- 
sented before  them  in  their  public  path  :  and  besides,  retired 
men  know  not  what  influences  are  at  work  for  or  ao-ainst 
their  promotion  ;  as  has  been  observed  in  this  especial  in- 
stance, "  the  parties  themselves  know  not  often,  at  the  in- 
stant, why  they  are  neglected,  or  why  they  are  preferred." 
He  was  certainly  a  man  of  great  merit,  and  unblamable 
moral  conduct :  his  worthiness  is  acknowledged  in  a  letter 
from  Archbishop  Seeker.  In  his  extreme  old  age,  the  ad- 
mired poet  could  only  recollect  the  names  of  two  frie?tds,  his 
housekeeper  and  his  hatter,  to  mention  in  his  will  ;  "  but  at 
eighty-four,"  observes  his  biographer,  "where,"  as  he  adds 
in  the  Centaur,  "is  that  world  into  which  we  were  born  ?" 
If  we  mean  to  have  friends,  we  must  continually  renew  them ; 
for  the  old  ones  will  die  off  or  become  cool  :  and  yet  both 
the  cherished  remembrance  of  some  old  friends,  and  the  fallinc: 
away  of  others,  prevent  our  hearts,  in  much  degree,  from  be- 
coming again  attached  to  new  ones.  How  true  are  the  re- 
marks of  Cicero, t  on  the  bereavement  and  consequent  loneli- 
ness, that  may  attend  on  old  age,  when  we  have  neglected  to 
repair  the  loss  of  old  friends,  by  new  acquisitions  I  but  still,  to 
the  Christian  mind  there  must  ever  be  delight  in  lookinir  for- 
ward  to  the  approaching  time  when  we  shall  happily  be 
reunited  to  our  old  friends,  and  feel  our  souls  to  be  entirely 
pervaded  with  one  calm,  undying  sensation  of  love  to 
God,    and  friendship   to   all    the   souls   of  just   men   made 

*  See  his  Life  in  "Lives  of  the  Poets." 
t  Essay  on  Friendship,  p.  306. 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHir.  205 

perfect  in  heaven.  On  this  thought  a  man  may  ^ve\l  live 
alone  during  the  few  last  years  of  his  life,  and  yet  rejoice  in 
his  loneliness. 

Dr.  Johnson  showed  much  friendship  to  the  blind  poet  and 
divine,  Rev.  Thomas  Blacklock,  D.D.,  a  man  of  extraordi- 
nary poetical  talent,  and  of  the  purest  and  kindest  character. 
He  had  been  blind  from  the  age  of  six  years.  When  John- 
son met  with  him  in  Scotland,  he  exclaimed  in  a  tender 
manner,  "  Dear  Dr.  Blacklock,  I  am  glad  to  see  you."  Alas  I 
Dr.  Blacklock  could  not  in  return  look  upon  his  good  friend, 
but  he  could  Jiea?'  him  :  and  by  the  faculty  of  hearing  he 
had  gained  all  his  wonderful  acquirements.  A  conversation 
ensued  between  them,  which  Boswell  in  part  misinterpreted, 
but  which  the  doctor  in  a  letter  afterward  explained.  As 
to  that  portion  of  their  argument,  Whether  it  were  easier  to 
write  poetry  or  lexicography,  the  determination  must  be  guid- 
ed by  the  propensity  of  minds  :  and  we  may  be  rather  sur- 
prised to  find  Dr.  Johnson  deciding  in  favor  of  the  facility  of 
writing  poetry,  when  we  may  conceive  that  he  possessed  a 
mind  peculiarly  adapted  to  what  may  be  called  heavy  work, 
and  that  in  fact  he  did  dictate  his  Dictionary  with  great  ra- 
pidity. Certainly  the  preparation  for  such  a  work  must  have 
been  arduous,  but  many  excellent  poets  are  more  indebted  to 
art  than  nature,  and  labor  out  a  poem  of  apparent  easy 
smoothness  with  great  patience  and  difficulty. 

The  father  of  this  poet  was  in  the  habit  of  reading  cou- 
tinually  to  his  blind  son,  and  the  latter  was  especially  pleased 
with  the  works  of  Spenser,  Milton,  Prior,  Pope,  and  Addison. 
Other  persons  showed  great  kindness  in  devoting  their  time 
to  giving  him  information  and  instruction.  An  account  of 
his  life,  character,  and  poems,  was  written  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Spence,  a  Prebendary  of  Durham,  and  for  ten  years  Professor 
of  Poetry  in  the  University  of  Oxford  ;  and  it  is  a  pleasing 
circumstance  to  find  this  church  dignitary,  of  whose  talent 
for  criticism*  Dr.  Johnson  held  a  high  opinion,  affectionately 

*  Spence's  Anecdotes  were  read  in  manuscript  by  Dr.  Johnson ; 
and  he  dei-ived  "great  assistance''  from  them  in  writing  "The  Lives 
of  the  Poets."  The  work  was  then  in  possession  of  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle, and  not  fully  printed  until  1820. 


206  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

writing  a  memoir  of  the  Presbyterian  doctor  of  divinity 
Mr.  Spence  describes  him  as  "  one  of  the  most  exraordinary 
characters  that  has  appeared  in  this  or  any  other  age,"  and 
lauds  "  his  private  character,  which,  were  it  more  generally 
known,  would  recommend  him  more  to  the  public  esteem  than 
the  united  talents  of  an  accomplished  writer."  The  fact  of 
his  attaining  great  excellence  in  poetry,  although  the  chief 
inlets  to  poetical  ideas  were  closed  up  to  him,  and  all  the 
visible  beauties  of  creation  long  passed  away  from  before  his 
physical  eye,  could  not  but  primarily  attract  the  attention  of 
his  biographer,  and  of  Dr.  Johnson  also.  Mr.  Spence  thinks 
that  all  natural  scenery  must  have  been  long  blotted  from  his 
memory,  and  regards  him  as  a  prodigy  :  while  Dr.  Johnson 
supposes  that  all  passages  in  his  poetry  which  are  descriptive 
of  visible  objects,  "  are  combinations  of  what  he  has  remem- 
bered of  the  works  of  other  writers  who  could  see."  And 
Croker  observes,  that  Johnson,  no  doubt,  gives  the  true  solu- 
tion of  Blacklock's  power,  which  was  memory,  and  not  mir- 
acle ;  memory  not  of  what  he  saw  during  the  six  years  of  his 
sight,  but  memory  of  what  was  read  to  him  ;  and  thus  the 
difficulty  of  writing  such  poetry  as  he  did  write  must  have 
been  much  increased,  and  his  success  been  more  wonderful 
than  his  composition  of  sermons,  and  some  other  kinds  of 
prose  works. 

He  possessed  the  virtue  of  contentedness  in  a  remarkable 
degree  ;  but  we  may  well  conjecture  that  the  loss  of  his  eye- 
sight was  a  sorrow  that  must  have  pressed  heavily  upon  his 
mind.      In  one  of  his  pieces  of  poetry,  he  says  : 

"  From  these  intrusive  thoughts  all  pleasure  flies, 
And  leaves  my  soul  benighted,  like  my  eyes." 

And  in  another,  entitled  a  Soliloquy,  he  makes  this  lament : 

"  To  me  these  fair  vicissitudes  are  lost, 
And  grace  and  beauty  blotted  from  my  view ; 
The  verdant  vale,  the  mountains,  woods,  and  streams 
One  horrid  blank  appear.      The  young-eyed  Spring  ; 
Effulgent  Summer;   Autumn  deck'd  in  wealth, 
To  bless  the  toiling  head ;  and  Winter  grand. 
With  rapid  storms,  revolve  in  vain  for  mo : 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHir.  207 

Nor  the  britrht  sun,  nor  all-embracing  arch 
Of  heaven,  shall  e'er  these  wretched  orbs  behold. 
Wide  o'er  my  prospect  rueful  darkness  breathes 
Her  inauspicious  vapor  :  in  whose  shade 
Fear,  Grief,  and  Anguish,  natives  of  her  reign, 
In  social  sadness  gloomy  vigils  keep  : 
With  them  I  walk,  with  them  still  doom'd  to  share 
Eternal  blackness,  without  hope  of  dawn." 

It  is  gratifying  to  find  that  in  the  course  of  this  very  poem 
a  gleam  of  light  seems  to  break  in  upon  his  mind,  especially 
in  relation  to  his  dread  of  arriving  at  a  state  of  temporal  des- 
titution ;  and  he  expresses  his  confidence  that  the  care  of 
Providence  which  has  hitherto  supported  him,  will  support 
and  comfort  him  unto  the  end.  Not  only  does  he  become 
satisfied  with  his  condition,  but  recognizes  some  very  great 
blessings  in  it :  and  thus  he  feels  that  chastenings  and  cor- 
rections are  rather  proofs  of  the  love  of  God  toward  him. 
He  was  truly  thankful  to  the  Lord  a7id  Samuel ;  for,  in  a 
dedication  of  one  of  his  books  *  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spence,  he 
says  :  "  It  is  to  your  kind  patronage  that  I  owe  my  intro- 
duction to  the  republic  of  letters,  and  to  your  benevolence, 
in  some  measure,  my  persent  comfortable  circumstances  :" 
although  he  considered  Dr.  Stevenson  of  Edinburgh,  a 
man  of  taste,  as  one  of  the  first  patrons  of  his  education. 
There  is  also  a  memoir  of  him  published  in  Anderson's  Brit- 
ish Poets. 

It  may  be  observed  that  usually  blind  men  are  cheerful, 
especially  so  as  compared  with  the  deaf,  contrary  to  what 
might  have  been  anticipated.  The  deaf  seem  commonly 
to  be  the  victims  of  suspicion  and  miserable  feeling,  with 
distrust  of  their  fellow-creatures.  Lucas,  in  his  Introduction 
to  the  "  Inquiry  after  Happiness,"  speaks  otherwise  of  his 
blindness  :  and  how  beatific  are  the  allusions  of  Milton  to 
this  calamity  I 

"  It  is  not  miserable  to  be  blind,"  said  Milton,  in  reply  to 
one  of  his  cruel  antagonists  ;  "he  only  is  miserable  who  can 
not  acquiesce  in  his  blindness  with  fortitude."  His  cheerful 
allusions  to  his  calamity  in  the  opening  of  the  third  book  of 

*  The  second  part  of  his  "  Paraclesis." 


208  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

"  Paradise  Lost"  must  be  well  known  :  though  his  eyes  saw 
not,  it  was  in  his  mind  that  he  prayed  for  light : 

"  There  plant  eyes,  all  mist  from  thence 
Purge  and  disperse,  that  I  may  see  and  tell 
Of  things  invisible  to  mortal  sight." 

But  most  sublime  and  affecting  are  those  lines  of  our  great 
epic  poet  which  have  been  but  lately  discovered,  =^  com- 
mencing, 

"  I  am  old  and  blind  ! 
Men  point  at  me  as  smitten  by  God's  power : 
Afflicted  and  deserted  of  my  kind  ; 
Yet  am  I  not  cast  down." 

No,  he  acknowledges  the  gracious  goodness  of  God  : 

"  On  my  bended  knee 
r  recognize  Thy  purpose  clearly  shown  : 
My  vision  Thou  hast  dimm'd  that  I  may  see 
Thyself— Thyself  alone." 

And  the  interior  powers  of  his  mind  are  increased : 

"  Visions  come  and  go ; 
Shapes  of  resplendent  beauty  round  me  throng ; 
i'rom  angel  lips  I  seem  to  hear  the  flow 
Of  soft  and  holy  song." 

But  another  glorious  example  of  cheerful  submission  under 
the  calamity  of  total  blindness  was  set  by  Lucas,  an  estima- 
ble divine,  whose  writings  have  been  cited  in  these  pages. 
He  says  :  "  Should  I  struggle  to  rescue  myself  from  that 
contempt  to  which  this  condition  (wherein  I  may  seem  lost 
to  the  world  and  myself)  exposes  me  ;  should  I  ambitiously 
affect  to  have  my  name  march  in  the  train  of  those  all 
(though  not  all  equally)  great  ones,  Homer,  Appius,  Cn. 
Aufidius,  Didymus,  Walkup,  Pere  Jean  I'Aveugle,  &c.,  all 
of  them  eminent  for  their  service  and  usefulness,  as  well  as 
for  their  afflictions  of  the  same  kind  with  mine  ;  even  this 
might  seem   almost  a  commendable  infirmity  ;   for  the  last 

■a 

*  Published  in  the  recent  Oxford  edition  of  "  Milton's  Works." 


DR.  JOHiNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  209 

thing  a  mind  truly  great  and  philosophical  puts  off,  is  the 
desire  of  glory.  Hence  Tacitus  closes  his  divine  character 
of  Helvidiiis  Priscus  thus,  '  Erant  quibus  appetentior  famte 
videretur,  quando  etiam  sapientibus  cupido  glorise  novissima 
exuitur.' 

'•  I  was  almost  induced  to  believe  that  this  chastisement, 
which  had  removed  me  from  the  service  of  the  altar,  did  at 
the  same  time  discharge  me  from  all  duty  owing  to  the  public. 
But  my  good  friend  Mr,  Lamb  revived  the  dying  sparks  of 
a  decaying  zeal,  and  restored  me  to  a  proper  sense  of  my 
duty  in  this  point  :  for  whether  by  design,  or  by  Providence 
governing  chance,  I  know  not  (for  he  never  seemed  to  address 
or  design  the  discourse  particularly  to  me),  he  had  ever  and 
anon  in  his  mouth  this  excellent  principle,  That  the  life  of 
man  is  to  be  esteemed  by  its  usefulness  and  serviceable- 
ness  in  the  world.  A  sober  reflection  upon  this  wrought  me 
up  to  a  resolution  strong  enough  to  contemn  all  the  difficul- 
ties which  the  loss  of  my  sight  could  represent  to  me  in  an 
enterprise  of  this  nature.  Thus  you  see  on  what  principles 
I  became  engaged  in  this  work :  ^  I  thought  it  my  duty  to 
set  myself  some  task,  which  might  serve  at  once  to  divert 
my  thoughts  from  a  melancholy  application  to  my  misfortune, 
and  ent-ertain  my  mind  with  such  a  rational  employment  as 
might  render  me  most  easy  to  myself,  and  most  serv^icable  to 
all  the  world.  Being  now  abundantly  convinced  that  I  am 
not  released  from  the  duty  I  owe  to  that  body  of  which  I 
am  still  a  member,  by  being  cut  off  from  a  great  part  of  the 
pleasures  and  advantages  of  it :  therefore  like  one  that  truly 
loves  his  country,  when  no  way  else  is  left  him,  he  fights 
for  it  on  his  stumps  ;  so  will  I,  even  in  the  remains  of  a 
broken  body,  express  at  least  my  affection  for  mankind,  and 
breathe  out  my  last  gasp  in  their  service." 

The  Walkup  mentioned  in  the  above  extract  was  an  Irish 
prelate  before  the  Reformation,  of  whom  "Wilson  has  given 
some  account.  I  believe  he  was  blind  from  his  birth  ;  if  so, 
it  is  curious  how  he  could  be  received  into  Holy  Orders. 
Mr.  Lamb  was  a  dissenter,  who  at  length  came  over  heart 

*  This  is  an  extract  from  the  address  '"To  the  Reader;"'  prefixed 
to  Lucas's  "Inquiry  after  Happiness."     4th  edition,  in  1704. 


210  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

and  soul,  upon  conviction,  to  the  church.  Lucas  preached 
his  funeral  sermon.  I  suspect  he  is  the  same  who  is  men- 
tioned by  Baxter  in  his  Life,  and  whom  Baxter  tried  in  vain 
to  settle  in  non-conformity.  Lucas's  resolution  may  be  very 
cheering  to  many  who  are  suffering  from  other  afflictions 
than  loss  of  sight  :  and  it  is  astonishing  what  some  good 
individuals,  who  are  hardly  ever  free  from  bodily  pain,  do 
accomplish  in  the  sacred  cause  of  humanity  and  religion  : 
they  do  "breathe  out  their  last  gasp  in  the  service  of  man- 
kind" with  true  and  undaunted  heroism. 

Of  Sterne  he  had  a  very  poor  opinion.  A  lady  once  ven- 
tured to  ask  him  how  he  liked  Yorick's  sermons.  "  I  know 
nothing  about  them,  madam,"  was  his  reply.  But  some 
time  afterward,  forgetting  himself,  he  severely  censured 
them,  and  the  lady  very  aptly  retorted,  "I  understood  you 
to  say,  sir,  that  you  had  never  read  them."  "No,  madam, 
I  did  read  them,  but  it  was  in  a  stage  coach.  I  should 
never  have  deigned  even  to  look  at  them  had  I  been  at 
large  y 

Mr.  Wickins  records  an  opinion  of  the  same  tendency. 
"  I  showed  him,"  he  says,  "  Sterne's  Sermons."  "  Sir,"  said 
he,  "do  you  ever  read  any  others?"  "Yes,  doctor,  I  read 
Sherlock,  Tillotson,  Beveridge,  and  others."  "Ay,  sir,  there 
you  drink  the  cup  of  salvation  to  the  bottom  ;  here  you  have 
merely  the  froth  from  the  surface." 

Sterne's  other  writings  he  equally  disliked.  "  Nothing 
odd,  he  said,  "  will  do  long.  '  Tristram  Shandy'  did  not 
last."  Another  anecdote  is  most  characteristic  of  Johnson's 
manner ;  his  rudeness,  and  subsequent  apology.  Miss  Monck- 
ton  (afterward  Countess  of  Cork)  insisted  that  some  of  Sterne's 
writings  were  very  pathetic.  Johnson  bluntly  denied  it.  "  T 
am  sure,"  said  she,  "  they  have  affected  me,  "  Why,"  said, 
Johnson,  smiling  and  rolling  himself  about,  "  that  is  because, 
dearest,  you're  a  dunce."  When  she  some  time  afterward 
mentioned  this  to  him,  he  said,  with  equal  truth  and  polite- 
ness, "  Madam,  if  I  had  thought  so,  I  certainly  should  not 
have  said  it." 

Yet  other  eminent  men  thought  well  of  Sterne.  Of  the 
celebrated  father  of  Lord  Chancellor  Bathurst,  we  have  this 


DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP.  211 

anecdote  =^  from  Sterne's  own  hand.  "He  came  up  to  me 
one  day,"  he  says,  "as  I  was  at  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
Court :  '  I  want  to  know  you,  Mr.  Sterne,  but  it  is  fit  you 
should  know  also  who  it  is  that  wishes  that  pleasure.  You 
have  heard  of  an  old  Lord  Bathurst,  of  whom  your  Popes  and 
Swifts  have  sung  and  spoken  so  much.  I  have  lived  my  life 
with  geniuses  of  that  caste,  but  have  survived  them  ;  and 
despairing  ever  to  find  their  equals,  it  is  some  years  since  I 
have  cleared  my  accounts  and  shut  up  my  books,  with 
thoughts  of  never  opening  them  again.  But  you  have 
kindled  a  desire  in  me  of  opening  them  once  more  before  I 
die,  which  now  I  do  :   so  go  home  and  dine  with  me  I'" 

Sterne  in  his  sermons  was  satirical  on  Methodists,  Quak- 
ers, and  Roman  Catholics.  He  speaks  of  the  former  as 
"illiterate  mechanics,  who,  as  a  witty  divine  said  of  them, 
were  much  fitter  to  7nake  a  pulpit  than  to  get  into  one,  able 
so  to  frame  their  nonsense  to  the  nonsense  of  the  times,  as 
to  beget  an  opinion  in  their  followers,  not  only  that  they 
prayed  and  preached  by  inspiration, t  but  that  the  most  com- 
mon actions  of  their  lives  were  set  about  in  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord."$  He  goes  on  to  say,  that  the  opinions  of  the  Meth- 
odists are  but  a  republication,  with  some  alterations,  of  the 
extravagant  conceits  of  Quakers,  which  he  regards  as  en- 
thusiastic, "The  truest  definition,"  he  writes,^  "you  can 
give  of  Popery  is,  that  it  is  a  system  put  together  and  con- 
trived to  operate  upon  men's  weaknesses  and  passions,  and 
thereby  to  pick  their  pockets,  and  leave  them  in  a  fit  condi- 
tion for  its  arbitrary  designs."  In  his  next  sermon  he  still 
further  attacks  the  Roman  Catholics  and  Methodists,  charg- 
ing   the    latter    with    more    than    papal    uncharitableness. 

*  Lord  Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  vol.  v.  p.  434. 

t  The  case  of  Norton  v.  Kelly,  referred  to  in  Lord  Campbell's  Life 
of  Lord  Xorthington,  is  a  very  remarkable  one  of  religious  imposture. 
The  defendant,  among  other  inducements,  had  written  to  the  plaintilF, 
a  lady,  "  Your  former  pastor  has,  I  hear,  excommunicated  you  ;  but  put 
yourself  in  my  congregation,  wherein  dwells  the  fullness  of  God."  The 
invariable  style  of  his  letters  was,  "  all  is  to  be  completed  by  love  and 
union."  Lord  Northington,  then  Lord  Henley,  concludes,  "  One  of 
his  counsel,  with  some  ingenuity,  tried  to  shelter  him  under  the  denom- 
ination of  '  an  independent  preacher.''  I  have  tried  in  this  decree  to 
spoil  his  independency  /''^ — Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  vol.  v.  p.  191. 

t    Vol.  ii.  Sermon  25.  §  Sermon  37. 


212  DR.  JOHNSON'S  CHURCHMANSHIP. 

"  Faith,"  he  continues,  "  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of 
a  Christian,  is  defined  by  them,  not  as  a  rational  assent  of 
the  understanding  to  truths  which  are  established  by  indis- 
putable authority,  but  as  a  violent  persuasion  of  the  mind, 
that  they  are  instantaneously  become  the  children  of  God  ; 
that  the  whole  score  of  their  sins  is  for  ever  blotted  out, 
without  the  payment  of  one  tear  of  repentance.  Pleasing 
doctrine  this  to  the  fears  and  passions  of  mankind  ;  promising 
fair  to  gain  proselytes  of  the  vicious  and  impenitent  I " 

It  may  be  feared  that  there  is  too  much  truth  in  this  re- 
mark of  Sterne's  ;  and  perhaps  it  may  not  be  unapplicable 
to  some  preachers  in  the  Church  of  England.  We  do  not 
desire  that  dissenters  should  bear  the  whole  blame  of  ad- 
vancing false  doctrine  or  light  conceits.  But,  turning  from 
these  accusations,  we  shall  find  a  good  deal  of  sterling  sense 
in  Sterne's  sermons  ;  and  there  is  one  on  the  Thirtieth  Day 
of  January  (the  anniversary  of  the  martyrdom  of  King 
Charles  the  First),  which  would  not  have  been  displeasing, 
in  its  sentiments,  at  least,  to  Dr.  Johnson  himself. 

The  notice  of  some  inferior  divines  and  writers  may  be 
passed  by  ;  and  we  refrain  also  from  entering  on  the  contro- 
versy concerning  Milton  :  Milton  is  in  himself  a  giant,  and 
the  subject  gigantic.  Several  of  our  leading  divines  are  not 
named  by  Dr.  Johnson  in  "  Boswell's  Life,"  but  we  can  not 
argue  from  their  omission  that  they  were  unknown  to  Dr. 
Johnson.  It  need  only  be  stated,  that  the  names  do  not  ap- 
pear of  Latimer,  Ridley,  Fuller,  Andrewes,  Mede,  John 
Smith ^  (of  Cambridge),  Whitgift,  Jackson,!  Chillingworth, 
Hall,  Cosin,  Cudworth,  Scott, J  Stillingfleet,  Beveridge,  Bull, 
Ken,  Bingham,  Waterland,  &c.,  &c.,  with  others  M'ho  form 
the  glory  of  the  church  in  theological  literature,  and  its  re- 
doubtable bulwark  against  the  assaults  of  Home  on  the  one 
hand,  and  dissent,  as  well  as  infidelity,  on  the  other, 

*  So  highly  eulogized  by  Alexander  Knox. 

t  Jones  ol'  Nayland  speaks  of  Dr.  Jackson's  works  as  "  a  magazine 
of  theological  learning,  every  where  penned  with  great  elegance  and  dii^- 
nity,  so  that  his  style  is  a  pattern  of  perfection." — Life  ofBp.  Home,  p.  7  5. 

X  Addison  found  out  the  virtues  of  Dr.  John  Scott,  and  describes  his 
"Christian  Life"'  as  "one  of  the  finest  and  most  rational  schemes  of 
divinity  that  is  written  in  our  tongue,  or  in  any  other." — Spectator, 
No.  447.  vol.  vi.  p.  194.  ~ 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
LORD  CHANCELLOR  THURLOW. 

Men  of  high  rank  simply,  gain  honor  to  themselves  by 
their  notice  of  others  who  are  eminent  in  the  walks  of  liter- 
ature, whereas  those  who  are  celebrated  both  for  rank  and 
learning  have  less  temptation  to  seek  fame  in  this  way ;  and, 
especially,  the  lasting  fame  of  Lord  Chancellors  must  mainly 
depend  on  the  soundness  of  their  legal  decisions,  and  the 
part  they  may  bear  in  the  politics  of  the  times  in  which 
they  live.  It  is  thus  the  more  gratifying  to  find  with  what 
high  regard  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow  contemplated  the 
literary  exertions  of  Dr.  Johnson,  and  sought,  in  an  hour  of 
apparent  need,  to  meet  his  wishes,  at  the  request  of  friends. 
It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  Johnson  originally  derived 
his  pension  from  George  the  Third  through  the  Marquis  of 
Bute,  to  whom  it  was  at  first  suggested  by  Lord  Thurlow's 
rival,  Mr.  Wedderburn,  afterward  Earl  of  Loughborough. 
Thurlow,  however  might  well  be  in  good  humor  at  this 
time  ;  for,  but  the  year  before.  Lord  Loughborough,  who 
had  been  appointed  First  Commissioner  when  the  Great 
Seal  was  put  in  Commission  during  the  Coalition  Ministry,* 
had  been  obliged,  much  to  his  chagrin,  to  deliver  it  up  to 
his  bitter  and  reckless  opponent. 

Boswell  observed  rightly,  when  he  addressed  Lord  Thurlow 
"as  well  assured  of  his  lordship's,  regard  for  Dr.  Johnson;" 
for  his  lordship,  in  answer,  speaks  highly  of  Johnson's  merit, 
and  the  reflection  it  would  be  on  all  if  such  a  man  should 
perish  for  want  of  the  means  to  take  care  of  his  health  ;  and 
to  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  his  lordship  writes  of  the  pleasure 
he  felt  in  contributing  to  the  health  and  comfort  of  a  man, 
"whom,"  he  says,  "I  venerate  sincerely  and  highly  for  every 
part,  without  exception,  of  his  exalted  character."  Johnson,  in 
*   Fox  and  Lord  Noilh,  under  iho  Duke  ol"  Porllnnd.  1783. 


2M         LORD  CHANCELLOR  THURLOVV. 

turn,  asserted  that  he  was  proud  to  own  his  obligations  to 
''such  a  mind  ; "  and  concluded  his  letter  to  his  lordship,  say- 
ing, "I  have  received  a  benefit  which  only  men  like  you  are 
able  to  bestow.  I  shall  now  live,  mild  earior,  with  a  higher 
opinion  of  my  own  merit." 

More  than  a  year  before,  he  had  said,  "Depend  upon  it, 
sil:,  it  is  when  you  come  close  to  a  man  in  conversation  that 
you  discover  what  his  real  abilities  are  :  to  make  a  speech  in 
a  public  assembly  is  a  knack.  Now  I  honor  Thurlow,  sir  : 
Thurlow  is  a  fine  fellow  :   he  fairly  puts  his  mind  to  yours." 

And  both  of  these  great  men  resembled  each  other  in  some 
respects  ;  the  want  of  religion  in  one,  and  the  possession  of  it 
in  the  other,  constituting  a  marked  difierence.  Both  were 
rebellious,  in  college  days,  against  the  respective  authorities  ; 
both  were  thorough  clubbists  ;  and  Thurlow,  as  Lord  Camp- 
bell remarks,  "like  his  contemporary.  Dr.  Johnson,  took  great 
pains  in  gladiatorial  discussion,"  and  both  were  acknowledged 
to  be  "  lions  "^  in  their  chosen  and  distinguished  paths  of 
life.  Of  Thurlow,  too,  it  is  recorded,  as  well  as  it  has  been 
of  Johnson,  that  "  however  rough  he  might  be  with  men,  he 

=^  "  An  old,  free-speaking  companion  of  his  (Thurlow's),  well  known 
al  Lincoln's-inn,  would  say,  '  I  met  the  great  Law  Lion  this  morning, 
going  to  Westminster,  and  bowed  to  him ;  but  he  was  so  busy  reading 
in  his  coach  what  his  provider  had  supplied  him  with,  that  he  took  no 
notice  of  me.'  "  "  So  fiercely  did  he  spring  on  a  luckless  counsel  or 
solicitor,  that  he  generally  went  by  the  name  of  the  '  Tiger ;  '  and  some- 
times they  would,  out  of  compliment,  call  him  the  '  Lion,'  adding,  that 
Hargrave  was  hifi  provider.  This  was  the  learned  editor  of  Coke  upon 
Littleton." — Lord  CampbclVs  Lives  of  the  Chancellors^  vol.  v.  p.  633, 
522. 

Li  no  part  of  Johnson's  life  and  habits  could  he,  by  any  conceit,  be 
denominated  "  Tiger."  No  ;  he  was  the  veritable  "  Lion"  all  through 
his  career,  and  in  the  generous  and  sublime  tenor  of  his  arduous  life 
surpasses  Thurlow. 

On  fighting  a  duel,  Thurlow  is  described  as  standing  up  to  his  adver- 
sary like  an  elephant.  His  physical  courage,  like  Johnson's,  was  great ; 
but  the  latter  could  not  explain  "the  rationality  of  dueling." 

The  excellent  William  Wilberforce  has  this  entr}'  in  his  Diary  ;  "  At 
the  levee,  and  then  dined  at  Pitt's — sort  of  cabinet  dinner — was  often 
thinking  that  pompous  Thurlow,  and  elegant  Carmarthen,  would  soon 
appear  in  the  same  row  with  the  poor  follow  who  waited  behind  their 
chairs." — Life  of  Wilberforce^  by  his  Sons. 


LORD  CHANCELLOR  THURLOVV.  215 

was  the  politest  person  in  the  world  to  ladies."  And  the 
following  words  spoken  by  a  kinsman  of  Lord  Thurlow,  might 
be  justly  applied  to  Johnson  ;  and,  indeed,  are  almost  the 
counterpart  of  what  he  did  say  of  himself:  "He  could  assume 
the  sternest  character,  if  necessary,  or  the  sweetest  smile  I 
ever  beheld  This  stern  exterior  was,  I  have  often  thought, 
put  on  to  cover  the  most  kind  and  feeling  heart  :  and  his  real 
nature  was  but  little  known,  but  to  those  who  had  the  happi- 
ness of  living  in  his  society."  There  was  something  so  terri- 
ble in  Thurlow's  look  and  voice  (as  described  by  Lord  Camp- 
bell), and  he  spoke  with  so  much  emphasis  his  pointed  severi- 
ties, that  often  his  object  was  gained  without  real  argument  ; 
yet.  Dr.  Johnson  was  his.  superior,  if  we  may  trust  a  con- 
temporary, in  effectiveness.  Craddock,  who  knew  both  inti- 
mately, says,  "  I  was  always  more  afraid  of  Johnson  than  of 
Thurlow  :  for  though  the  latter  was  sometimes  very  rough 
and  course,  yet  the  decisive  stroke  of  the  former  left  a  mortal 
wound  behind  it."  Many,  indeed,  quailed  before  both  these 
great  conversationists  :  and  Home  Tooke,  one  of  the  best 
talkers  of  his  time,  was  quite  overawed  by  Thurlow's  look  and 
tone  of  voice  alone  :  he  was  (it  may  be"  said  to  theological 
readers)  the  Atterbury  both  of  law  courts  and  of  society. 
Lord  Thurlow,  in  common  with  Johnson,  dared  to  let  his 
poverty,  or  the  lowness  of  his  parentage,  be  known.  He  had 
a  just  contempt.  Lord  Campbell  tells  us,  for  the  vanity  of 
new  men  pretending  that  they  are  of  ancient  blood  ;  and 
some  one,  attempting  to  flatter  him  by  trying  to  make  out 
that  he  was  descended  from  Thurloe,  Cromwell's  secretary, 
who  was  a  Suffolk  man,  "  Sir,"  said  he,  "  there  were  two 
Thurlows  in  that  part  of  the  country,  who  flourished  about  the 
same  time  :  Thurloe  the  secretary,  and  Thurlow  the  carrier. 
I  am  descended  from  the  last."  Yet,  when  in  the  House  of 
Lords  he  was  reproached  with  his  plebeian  extraction,  by  the 
Duke  of  Grafton,  how  nobly,  after  stating  the  dignities  to 
which  he  had,  by  his  own  exertions,  arrived,  he  said,  "Nay, 
even  in  that  character  alone,  in  which  the  noble  duke  would 
think  it  an  affront  to  be  considered — as  a  max — I  am  at  this 
moment  as  respectable — I  beg  leave  to  add,  I  am  at  this 
moment  as  much  resnected — as  the  proudest  peer  I  now  Inolr 


21G  LORD   CHANCELLOR  THURLOW. 

down  upon."  And  we  are  informed  that  he  was  ever  more 
cautious  of  speakmg  offensively  among  inferiors  than  among 
the  great.^ 

Lord  Thurlow  never  wrote  a  book,  not  even  a  pamphlet  , 
but  he  seems  to  have  been  fond  of  literary  society.  After 
his  entire  ejection  from  office,  he  consoled  his  mind  with 
classical  literature,  and  a  voracious  reading  of  novels  ;  and, 
in  one  instance,  so  interested  was  he  in  the  plot,  that  he 
dispatched  his  groom  from  Dulwich  to  London,  after  ten 
o'clock  at  night,  for  the  concluding  volume,  that  he  might 
know  the  fate  of  the  heroine  before  trying  to  go  to  sleep. 
Other  great  politicians  and  lawyers,  such  as  Fox  and  Sir 
James  Macintosh,  have  found  time  to  peruse  nearly  all  this 
species  of  the  lighter  literature  of  their  day  :  a  kind  of  read- 
ing which  is,  in  some  degree,  now  superseded  by  the  enlarged 
newspapers.  He  admired  and  venerated  Dr.  Johnson,  and 
befriended  Crabbe  :  but,  to  his  shame,  overlooked  the  poet 
Cowper,  who,  to  the  last,  affectionately  adored  him.  Per- 
haps the  poet's  lines  against  the  iniquitous  slave-trade,  a 
matter  on  which  Thurlow  spoke  strongly,  prevented  the 
patronage  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  :  and  we  know  that  his 
lordship  also  disliked,  what  he  styles,  "  your  pious  heroes." 
He  might  have  tolerated  Johnson's  religious  views,  but  those 
of  Cowper  would  have  been  to  him,  w^e  may  fear,  mere  cant 
and  verbiage.  Thurlow  was  not  a  religious  man  ;  probably 
he  was  a  skeptic :  and  in  his  disappointed  old  age  he  missed 
the  consolations  of  religion,  together  with  all  the  fortitude 
and  resignation  of  character  that  it  inspires.  The  difference 
of  disposition  with  which  Lord  Hardwicke  bore  the  loss  of 
the  highest  judicial  office,  and  his  anxious  concern  only  for 
the  good  of  his  country,  place  him  in  amiable  contrast  with 
Thurlow  ;  although  the  former  seems  not  to  have  cultivated 
either  religion  or  classical  literature,  and  certainly  to  have 
behaved  in  an  inconsiderate,  if  not  heartless  manner,  toward 
Thomson  the  poet,  who,  like  himself,  was  a  Whig  in  politics, 
and  who  wrote  nothing,  as  in  the  case  of  Cowper,  wdiich 
could  have  been  offensive  to  his  opinions.  Lord  Hardwicke 
w^as  a  better  lawyer,  and  a  milder  and  more  consistent  man 
*  Campbell,  p.  66L 


LORD  CHANCELLOR  THL^RLOW.  217 

than    ThurloAv,   throughout    his    career ;    but   he   scorned  or 
neglected  Uterary  men,*'  and  they  have,  in  consequence,  not 

*  Not  thus  was  it  with  another  ennobled  lawyer.  Lord  Campbell, 
in  his  ''  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices  of  England,"  says  of  ^Murray  (after- 
ward Lord  3Iansfield),  ''The  new  Solicitor  General  and  ^LP  found  a 
mortifying  difficulty  in  keeping  up  the  intercourse  he  wished  with  his 
literary  associates  :  and  Pope,  when  publishing  a  new  edition  of  the 
'"Danciad,""  introduced  him  (although  with  respect  and  tenderness), 
among  those  who,  from  their  classical  attainments  and  their  genius, 
might  have  gained  high  intellectual  distinction,  but  icho  had  sunk  into 
lawyers  and  politicians.'^ 

Lord  ]\[ansfield  was  a  wonderful  man,  but  he  could  not  contend  with 
Lord  Chatham,  who  to  fiery  genius  joined  great  eloquence,  and  signal 
moral  and  physical  courage.  Pope  presented  Murray  with  a  miniature 
portrait  of  Betterton  the  celebrated  actor,  painted  by  himself.  It  is  to 
be  feared  this  invaluable  relic  of  Pope's  art  in  painting  was  destroyed 
when  Lord  Mansfield's  house  was  set  fire  to  by  the  rioters  in  1780. 

Bishop  Warburton  observed,  "  Mr.  Pope  had  all  the  warmth  of 
afTeetion  for  this  great  lawyer,  and  indeed  no  man  ever  more  deserved 
to  have  a  poet  for  his  friend,"  &c.  Pope,  IMurray,  Bolingbroke,  and 
Warburton,  on  one  occasion  dined  together  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields 
(Murray's  residence),  and  '"  0  for  a  Boswell,"  exclaims  Lord  Campbell, 
"  to  have  given  us  their  conversation  !" 

Hannah  !More  tells  a  good  anecdote  of  Pitt.  "  In  the  midst  of  all 
these  cares  and  distractions,"  she  says,  "a  friend  of  mine  called  on  Pitt 
the  other  night.  He  found  him  alone,  gay  and  cheerful,  his  mind 
totally  disengaged  from  the  scenes  in  which  he  had  passed  the  day.  He 
was  reading  3Iilton  aloud  with  great  emphasis,  and  he  said  his  mind 
was  so  totally  engaged  in  Paradise,  that^e  had  forgotten  there  were  any 
people  in  the  world  but  Adam  and  Eve .'" 

Hannah  More  subjoins.  "  This  seems  a  trifle,  but  it  is  an  indication 
of  a  great  mind,  so  entirely  to  discharge  itself  of  such  a  load  of  care, 
and  to  find  pleasure  in  so  innocent  and  sublime  an  amusement." 
Memoirs  of  Hannah  More,  vol.  ii.  p.  142. 

Shall  it  be  said  of  the  immortal  William  Pitt,  what  we  have  written 
of  Edmund  Burke  and  George  Canning  in  the  fourteenth  page  of  this 
book? 

This  anecdote  is  told  of  one,  not  of  the  same  calibre  as  Pitt. 

There   is  a  monumental  inscription  beneath  the   statue  of  Pitt  in 
Guildhall,  written  by  Canning.     It  closes  after  this  manner, 
"  Though  Prime  Minister  during  twenty  years. 
He  died  poor." 
It  is  said  the  inscription  was  submitted  to  a  Committee  in  the  city  of 
London  for  their  approval.      The  Committee  of  course  highly  approved 
of  it,  but  one  of  them  modestly  bego^ed  leave  to  suggest  that  instead  of 
the  words  "  He  died  poor,"  it  might  be  better  to  substitute  the  words, 
"  He  died  in  indigent  circumstances  !" 
K 


218  LORD  CHANCELLOR  THHRLOW. 

remembered  him  ;  and  the  legal,  as  well  as  the  military  hero, 
Avill  not  descend  in  universal  fame  to  posterity  without  the 
aid  of  the  poet.  Out  of  a  thousand  men  who  now  know  the 
name,  and  reverence  the  mind  of  Dr.  Johnson,  not  ten  may 
be  acquainted  with  the  name  or  talent  of  Lord  Hardwicke, 
and  we  may  well  suppose,  that  those  who  are  acquainted 
with  Lord  Hardwicke's  name,  know  that  of  Johnson  also  ; 
while  the  vast  number  to  whom  Johnson  s  name  is  a  familiar 
v/ord,  absolutely  have  never  heard  the  name  of  Hardwicke. 
Hear  Lord  Campbell  :*  "  With  all  his  titles,  and  all  his 
wealth,  how  poor  is  his  fame  in  comparison  of  that  of  his 
contemporary,  Samuel  Joiisnon,  ""vhom  he  would  not  have 
received  at  his  Sunday  evening  parties  in  Powis  House,  or 
invited  to  hear  his  state  stories  at  Wimpole's  I"  And  with 
what  nobleness  of  disposition,  manifesting  that  he  possesses 
"  a  soul  above  buttons,"  does  Campbell  add  :  "  A  man  desir- 
ous of  solid  fame  would  rather  have  written  the  '  Rambler,' 
the  '  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes,'  '  Rasselas,'  or  the  '  Lives  of 
the  Poets,'  than  have  delivered  all  Lord  Hardwicke' s  speeches 
in  Parliament,  and  all  his  judgments  in  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery, although  the  author  had  L.^n  sometimes  obliged  to  pass 
the  night  on  the  ashes  of  a  glass-house,  and  at  last  thought 
himself  passing  rich  with  his  X300  pension,  while  the  peer 
lived  in  splendor,  and  died  Avorth  a  million."  And  he 
further  adds  in  a  note,  "  Hardwicke  is  to  Johnson  as  the 
most  interesting  Life  that  could  be  written  of  Lord  Hard- 
wicke is  to  Boswell's  '  Life  of  Johnson  :'  the  proportion  of  a 
farthing  candle  to  the  meridian  sun."  With  how  peculiar  a 
grace  and  worth  do  such  sentences  proceed  from  the  pen  of  a 
man  of  Lord  Campbell's  eminent  knowledge  and  practice  of 
law  I  though  it  is  from  eminent  men  that  we  look  for  noble- 
minded  language  ;  and  they  are  the  more  valuable,  inasmuch 
as  he  was  not  led  away  by  a  blind  or  bigoted  admiration! 
of  the  giant  in  literature.      No  one  can  read  Lord  Campbell's 

*  Vol.  V.  p.  167,  Life  of  Lord  Hardwicke. 
■     t  As  where  he  prefers  the  pithy  conclusion  of  a  memorable  speech 
of  Lord    Hardwicke's,  as   given  in  Archbishop   Seekers   manuscript 
notes,  to  the  more  lengthened  paraphrastic  rendering  of  Dr.  Johnson. 
See  p.  88. 


LORD  CHANCELLOR  THURLOW.  219 

"  Lives  of  the  Chancellors"  without  predicting  an  immortality 
to  his  own  name,  not  only  as  accruing  from  the  fame  of  the 
illustrious  personages  described,  but  more  from  the  full  and 
interesting  details  given  after  great  research,  and  the  generous 
as  well  as  just  remarks,  which  accompany  their  histories  ; 
truly  affording  to  the  intelligent  of  each  successive  generation 
a  book  not  only  of  instruction  and  learned  information,  but 
also  of  exceeding  entertainment  and  delight.  Fox  thought 
that  no  man  could  he  so  wise  as  Thurlow  looked,  and  neither 
can  we  imagine  the  generation  to  come  that  would  be,  or 
look,  too  wise  to  relish  these  volumes  of  biography.  Still 
Johnson,  single-handed,  will  ever  attract  more  of  the  atten- 
tion of  posterity  than  any  one  of  the  Chancellors,  or  probably 
than  all  of  them  put  together  ;  yet  he,  even  in  his  hey-day 
of  fame,  could  not  help  for  a  moment  wishing  that  he  had 
been  a  "law  lord."  Had  he  been  one,  he  would  have  been 
distinguished  indeed,  if  we  only  form  a  judgment  from  the 
cases  he  drew  up  for  Mr.  Bosvvell  ;  and  we  may  say,  with 
great  degree  of  certainty,  that  he  would  have  attained  that 
eminence  which  would  haA'-e  placed  him  in  the  fortunate 
category  of  having  had  Campbell  as  his  biographer.  From 
the  period  of  this  pattern  of  all  judicial  excellence,  entire 
freedom  from  corruption  and  bribery  has  been  continued. 
Lord  Campbell  says,  "  Spotless  purity,  not  only  an  absence 
from  bribery  and  corruption,  but  freedom  from  undue  influ- 
ence, and  an  earnest  desire  to  do  justice,  may  at  that  time, 
and  ever  afterward,  be  considered  as  belonging  to  all  English 
judges."      This  was  not  the  case  before. 

Old  Hugh  Latimer,  the  ever  honest  and  fearless  bishop, 
miercilessly  attacked  the  proud  and  venal  judges  of  his  time.^ 

*  During  the  same  reign  (Edward  the  Sixth),  that  celebx-ated  clergy- 
man, Bernard  Gilpin,  preaches  against  the  same  corruptions,  in  the 
same  plain  and  uncomprising  manner  as  Hufjh  Latimer,  as  we  learn 
from  his  notable  sermon  preached  before  the  king,  on  the  first  Sunday 
after  the  Epiphany,  1552,  from  the  text  of  Luke  ii.  41—50.  It  required 
true  moral  courage  in  both  of  them  to  preach,  as  they  so  firmlv  did, 
against  the  overwhelming  corruption  and  carelessness  that  prevailed 
among  all  classes  of  nobility,  of  judges,  magistrates,  and  ministers,  in 
those  times ;  and  the  anecdote  of  the  Bishop  of  Worcester,  in  regard 
to  his  befriending  the  cause  of  the  poor  man,  must  bo  well  known. 


220         LORD  CHANCELLOR  THURLOW. 

He  could  not  abide  their  velvet  coats  and  upskips,  but  be- 
sought the  Lord  Protector  himself  to  hear  causes.  "  View 
your  judges,"  he  says  in  his  second  Sermon,  "  and  hear  poor 
men's  causes.  And  you,  proud  judges,  hearken  what  God 
sailh  in  his  holy  book.  '  Hear  ye  the  poor,'  saith  he,  '  as 
well  as  the  rich.'  Mark  that  saying,  thou  proud  judge  I 
Hell  will  be  full  of  such  judges,  if  they  repent  not  and 
amend."  In  his  third  Sermon,  he  tells  the  story  of  Camby- 
ses,  who  avenged  a  poor  widow  by  ordering  the  judge  to  be 
flayed,  and  his  skin  to  be  laid  on  the  chair  of  judgment,  that 
all  judges  afterward  should  sit  on  the  same  skin.  "Surely 
it  was  a  goodly  sign,"  says  Latimer,  "the  sign  of  the  judge's 
skin.  I  pray  God  we  may  once  see  the  sign  of  the  skin  in 
England."  In  his  fifth  Sermon,  he  again  lashes  them. 
"If  a  judge,"  he  says,  "should  ask  me  the  way  to  hell,  I 
would  show  him  this  way  ;  first  by  covetousness,  then  bribes, 
then  perverting  of  judgment  :  but  there  lacks  a  fourth 
thing,"  he  continues,  "  to  make  up  the  mess,  which,  so  God 
help  me,  if  I  were  judge,  should  be  a  Tyburn  tippet.  Were 
it  the  judge  of  the  King's  Bench,  my  Lord  Chief  Justice  of 
England,  yea,  were  it  my  Lord  Chancellor  himself,  to  Tyburn 
with  him."  Happily,  in  no  modern  instance  have  Latimer's 
coarse  words  been  needed  ;  both  Hardwicke  and  Thurlow 
were  honest  as  the  day,  as  regards  such  charges  ;  but,  me- 
thmks,  more  than  to  these,  Johnson's  own  lines  would  have 
applied  to  himself,  had  he  ever  become  a  retiring  chancellor, 

"  Calm  con.science  then  his  former  life  survey'd, 
And  recollected  toils  endear'd  the  shade, 
'Till  Nature  called  him  to  the  general  doom, 
And  virtue's  sorrow  diirnified  his  tomb." 


CHAPTER   XIV. 
OPINIONS   ON   DISSENT  AND   DISSENTERS. 

Dr.  Johnson,  it  must  be  remembered,  lived  during  a 
period  when  dissent,  in  great  degree,  was  rather  a  commenc- 
ing than  an  estabHshed  institution  :  perhaps  it  is  more  cor- 
rect to  say,  that  it  was  a  revival  of  an  old  error  :  great 
lethargy  had  crept  into  the  dissent  that  already  existed,  as 
well  as  into  the  sanctuaries  of  the  church  ;  and  religion  gen- 
erally, as  with  the  Media3val  church,  was  to  all  appearance 
in  a  state  of  suspended  animation.  There  was  need,  then, 
that  a  spirit  should  go  forth,  and  lift  up  a  great  cry,  ay,  bet- 
ter to  utter  very  screams  over  the  seeming  corpse,  than  to 
leave  it  alone  to  the  gaze  of  an  exulting  and  scoffing  nation. 
Hence,  perhaps  more  within  than  without  the  chutch,  a  loud 
shout  of  awakening  from  slumber  arose ;  the  Venns,  Romaines, 
Topladys,  Berridges,  Walkers,  Herveys,  Madans,  Newtons, 
&c.,  breathed  the  breath  of  life  into  the  dry  bones  on  one 
side  of  doctrinal  excitement,  with  the  external  help  of  Whit- 
field, Doddridge,  Ingham,  Harris,  Cennick,  Rowland  Hill, 
&c.,  all  Calvinists  to  the  backbone,  whom  Lady  Huntingdon 
so  largely  favored,  and  Horace  Walpole  elegantly  caricatured ; 
while,  still  in  the  church,  Wesley,  Fletcher  of  Madeley,  and 
their  followers  took  the  field,  and  with  more  zeal  than 
judgment,  preached  to  the  multitudes  of  the  nation,  with 
extreme  energy  what  they  conceived  to  be  the  vital  doctrines 
of  the  blessed  Gospel ;  and  from  the  exertions  of  all  these, 
churchmen  and  dissenters  arose,  stood  upon  their  feet,  an 
exceeding  great  and  imposing  army. 

Still,  this  was  a  convulsive  coming  to  life  of  the  corpse 

it  was  a  galvanic  resuscitation — inwardly  with  all  the  agony 
of  returning  sensation  to  a  drowned  man,  and  outwardly 
with  all  the  grimace  and  tortuous  writhing  which  Avould  at- 
tend on  the  reviving  work  within.      No  wonder,  then,  that 


222  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

much  occurred  which  would  tend  to  horrify  and  scare  sober 
and  pious   Christians  :   for  many  would  say,   Let  us  retire 
awhile  and  not  gaze  upon  these  dreadful  contortions  of  the 
countenance,   and  these  awful  strugglings  of  the  body  with 
its  returning  inner  life;   let  us  wait  until  health  be  restored, 
the  face  calm  and  rational,   the  body  sound   and  standing 
erect  in  perfect  strength  ;   for,  while  a  process  is  required  of 
which  we  stand  in  no  need,  let  the  proper  physicians  and  at- 
tendants gather  round,  but  let  not  us,  who  can  do  no  good, 
go   and  indulge   a  morbid   curiosity,    and  which    ultimately 
might,   in  the  common  sympathy  of  our  uncertain  nature, 
effect  harm  within  our  own  minds  and  souls,  by  seducing  us 
from  soberness  and  settledness  into   eccentricity  and  discon- 
tentedness.      For  in  these  days,  it  must   be  borne  in  mind, 
there  Avere  very  many  real   Christian  hearts  beating  in  the 
church  with  all  the  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  of  which  Chris- 
tian men  are  capable  :   and  to  these,  the  new  doings,  and 
the  new  processes  of  alarming  and  arousing  the  dead  and 
slumbering  ones,  seemed  to  partake  of  much  of  the  hideous 
and  the  horrible.      It  was  what  Mrs.  Radcliffe  and  her  crew 
were  to  the  common  world  of  readers,  not  only  alluring  them 
from  the  perusal  of  wholesome   and  rational  literature,  but 
rendering  them  fearful  of  their  own  selves  and  of  all  other 
people  :   afraid  to  walk  out  by  day,  or  sit  in  the  house  by 
night ;   and  when  the  dread   hour  of  midnight  arrived,  and 
the    clock   struck   one,   oh  what   fearfulness   and  trembling, 
what  apparitions,  hollow  groans,  and  shrieks  of  subterraneous 
victims,  at  once  agonizing  and  appalling  I   and  rendering  the 
poor  creatures  incapable  of  the  exercise  of  the  truly  heroic  and 
milder  virtues  of  fortitude,  resignation  and  discretion. 

Now  Dr.  Johnson  was  one  of  the  soberly  religious  minds 
of  the  age.  He  looked  upon  the  church  as  a  loyal  establish- 
ment, guiding  the  solid  and  prudential  convictions  of  man- 
kind for  the  present  existence,  and  assuredly  teaching  that 
line  of  doctrine,  and  exhorting  to  that  kind  of  disposition, 
which  must  certainly  be  adapted  for  the  heavenly  and  eter- 
nal life.  He  could  not  abide  the  carnal  excitements  and 
eccentricities  of  men  ;  and  instead  of  standing  in  a  street,  or 
on  a  common,  to  list  to  the  fire  and  eloquence  of  a  Whit- 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  223 

field,  lie  would  have  said  with  David,  in  his  own  resolute 
and 'self-humbling  way,  "But  as  for  me,  I  will  come  into 
Thine  house,  even  upon  the  multitude  of  Thy  mercy  :  and 
in  Thy  fear  will  I  worship  toward  Thy  holy  temple." 

But  while   all  this   amazing  and  confounding  work  was 
going  on  in  English  districts,  Dr.  Johnson  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  witnessing  a  more  sober  and  decent  settlement  of  dis- 
sent in  Presbyterian  Scotland  ;   fbr  even  Adam  Clarke  had 
not  yet  set  foot  on  the  Shetland  Isles.      We  can  collect,  then 
Dr.    Johnson's   opniion    of  two    kinds  of  religious  teaching, 
Presbyterianlsm  and  Methodism,  more  to  be  treated  of  now 
than  tlie  evangelical  resurrection,  or  as  he  might  have  term- 
ed it  i?isurrection,  within  the  pale  of  the  church  ;    and  while 
we  know  that  he,  as  a  devout  Christian,  would  have  wished 
to  have  seen  one  church  and  one  faith  existing,  and  to  have 
witnessed  all  men  alive  to  the  solemn  requirements  and  re- 
alities of  these,  as  bearing  on  that  practical  godliness  which 
has   the   promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  of  that 
which  is  to  come,  we  shall  at  the  same  time  see  the  manner 
of  his  temper  toward  the  existing  contrarieties,  and  the  senti- 
ments that  proceeded,  often  abruptly,  from  his  mighty  mtel- 
lect  •    a  temper  and  intellect  that  could  not  suppress  an  opin- 
ion from  false  motives  ;   that  could  not  keep  back  the  warn- 
ino-  words  of  charity,  through  fear  of  the  bugbear  accusation 
of^intolerance    or  bigotry.      No,   he   must  cherish   a   strong 
thou-ht  •    he   must  have  a  decided  side  ;   he  must  hold  the 
truth,  and   give   a.  cause.      His   illustrious  friend   Burke  has 
said  well,  and  the  comment  of  an  earnest  divine*  may  also 
be   f^iven,  "  That   those  persons  should   tolerate  all   opinions 
who"  think  none  to   be   of  estimation,  is   a  matter  of  small 
merit.      Equal  neglect  is  not  impartial  kindness.      The  spe- 
cies of  benevolence  which  arises  from  contempt,  is  not  true 

*  Hucrh  James  Rose,  who  continues  on  Indifference,  ''Where  that 
flourishes  and  abounds,  nothing  else  xvill ;  for  it  dries  up  every  source 
of  lertilitv,  the  gushing  spring  of  human  affections,  the  gentle  devv  of 
^race  from  heaven.  There  will  be  no  love  :  no  love  oi  rnan,  no  love 
of  God  .  no  gratitude  for  deliverance,  no  love  of  the  deliverer,  no 

zeal  for' his  honor,  no  desire,  and  no  readiness,  to  act,  or  to  suffer  for 
it,  or  for  the  good' of  man."  Sermon  6,  preached  betore  the  University 
of  Cambridge. 


224  OriNIONS  ON   DISSENT   AND   DISSENTERS. 

charity,"  "  What,  then,"  observes  Rose,  "is  its  true  name? 
It  is,  simply,  indifference  ;  and  from  indifference  cometh  no 
good  thing  I  Come  any  thing  but  that  !  Come  the  wild 
dreams  of  superstition  ;  come  the  savage  excesses  of  the  en- 
thusiast ;  come  the  stern  rigors  of  the  fanatic  ;  which,  with 
all  their  evils,  still  leave  the  heart  something  to  love  and  rev- 
erence, still  leave  it  unabated  trust  in  good  and  the  Author 
of  good ;  but  come  not  withering,  palsying  hand  of  '  indiffer- 
ence' upon  the  Christian's  heart  I"  Dr.  Johnson's  profound- 
ness of  investigation,  and  the  active,  constraining  principles 
of  religion  ever  moving  his  heart  and  influencing  his  conduct, 
give  a  loud  lie  to  any  charge  of  indifference  ;  and  very  often 
it  may  be,  that  the  very  warmth  and  intenseness  of  a  man's 
feelings  on  the  question  of  all  questions,  lays  him  open  to  an 
accusation  of  bigotry  and  intolerance  from  the  more  superficial 
and  less  considerate  minds  of  the  period  in  which  he  showed 
his  strong  attachment  to  a  righteous  and  all-important  cause. 

The  first  great  question  to  be  settled,  is  that  of  toleration, 
or  religious  liberty.  Too  often  this  matter  is  rather  decided 
by  numbers  and  force,  than  by  right  and  peace.  Dissentients 
increase,  and  privileges  which  were  denied  to  them  when 
they  were  few,  must  now  be  granted.  But,  without  paying 
deference  to  the  few  or  the  many,  the  question  is,  on  which 
side  does  the  right  lie  ?  for  the  multitude  is  usually  tyranni- 
cal, and  therefore  the 'protection  of  the  few  is  often,  and  al- 
ways should  be  in  cases  of  persecution,  the  aim  and  act  of 
the  law  in  every  country  possessing  a  free  constitution. 

Dr.  Johnson  held,  that  every  society  has  a  right,  through 
its  age?it,  the  magistrate,  to  preserve  public  peace  and  order, 
and  therefore  to  prevent  the  propagation  of  opinions  which 
have  a  dangerous  tendency.  The  magistrate  might  be  theo- 
logically or  morally  wrong  in  prohibiting  the  extension  of 
certain  opinions,  but  he  would  be  politically  right.  Peace, 
order,  and  the  conformity  to  the  rules  of  society,  are  the 
first  things  to  be  cared  for.  Dr.  Mayo  said,  "  I  am  of  opinion, 
sir,  that  every  man  is  entitled  to  liberty  of  conscience  in  re- 
ligion ;   and  that  the  magistrate  can  not  restrain  that  right." 

Johnson  answered,  "  Sir,  I  agree  with  you.  Every  man 
has  a  right  to  liberty  of  conscience,  and  with  that  the  magis- 


OriNIONS  OiN  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  225 

trate  can  not  interfere.*  People  confound  liberty  of  thinking 
Avith  liberty  of  talking,  nay,  with  liberty  of  preaching.  Every 
man  has  a  physical  right  to  think  as  he  pleases,  for  it  can  not 
be  discovered  how  he  thinks.  He  has  not  a  moral  right,  for 
he  ought  to  inform  himself,  and  think  justly.  But,  sir,  no 
member  of  a  society  has  a  right  to  teach  any  doctrine  con- 
trary to  what  the  society  holds  to  be  true." 

M  he  does  so  teach,  he  also  held,  whether  he  be  individ- 
ually right  or  wrong,  he  may  be  punished. 

In  the  above  definition  of  liberty  of  conscience,  Dr.  John- 
son appears  too  confined.  True,  a  man  may  think  what  he 
likes,  because  no  man  can  tell  what  another  man's  thoughts 
are,  but  it  is  liberty  to  expression  of  thought  that  is  contended 
for.  At  the  same  time,  we  can  very  plainly  see,  that  no 
man  should  be  permitted  "  to  teach  any  doctrine  contrary  to 
what  the  society  holds  to  be  true."  No,  a  man  could  not 
conscientiously  do  so  ;  he  must,  of  necessity,  go  out  of  the  so- 
ciety ;  but  will  the  society,  or  any  other  party,  have  a  right  to 
persecute  him  after  he  is  gone  out  ?  Thus  the  first  Christians 
came  out  from  among  the  Jews,  and  the  Protestants  from  among 
the  Roman  Catholics  :  for  the  same  persons  could  not  teach 
Christianity  and  remain  as  Jews,  or  propagate  the  tenets  of 
Protestantism  and  hold  with  the  Homan  Catholic  Church. 

Dr.  Mayo,  however,  was  perplexed,  and  replied  to  Dr. 
Johnson,  "  Then,  sir,  Ave  are  to  remain  always  in  error,  and 
truth  never  can  prevail ;  and  the  magistrate  was  right  in 
persecuting  the  first  Christians," 

*  Lord  Mansfield  said  (and  his  speech  was  heartily  approved  of  by 
Lord  Camden),  '"  Conscience,  my  lords,  is  not  controllable  by  human 
laws,  nor  amenable  to  human  tribunals.  Persecution,  or  attempts  to 
force  conscience,  will  never  produce  conviction,  and  can  only  be  calcu- 
lated to  make  hypocrites  or  martyrs." — Lord  Campbell's  Lives  of  the 
Chancellors,  vol.  v.  p.  238. 

Acasto  (Otwav's  Orphan,  gives  idle  rules  to  his  family  for  their  con- 
duct in  life,  calculated  to  produce  misanthropy,  rendering  them  odious  : 

"  If  you  have  religion,  keep  it  to  yourselves  : 
Atheists  will  else  make  use  of  toleration^ 
And  laugh  you  out  on't."' 

Yet,  we  may  ask  with  satisfaction,  Are  there  not  fewer  atheists  now 
than  in  the  time  of  Charles  the  Second  ? 

K* 


226  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

Johnson  answered,  "  Sir,  the  only  method  by  which  reh'g- 
ious  truth  can  be  estabhshed  is  by  martyrdom.  The  magis- 
trate has  a  right  to  enforce  what  he  thinks,  and  he  yfho  is 
conscious  of  the  truth  has  a  right  to  sufier.  I  am  afraid 
there  is  no  way  of  ascertaining  the  truth  but  by  persecution 
on  the  one  hand,  and  enduring  it  on  the  other/' 

This  is  perfectly  true  in  regard  to  the  state  of  the  civil  law 
in  most  countries,  and  also  in  relation  to  our  own  country 
during  Dr.  Johnson's  time ;  but  surely  now  there  is  no  civil 
persecution  so  long  as  the  feelings  and  privileges  of  society 
are  not  outraged,  there  is  perfect  toleration  for  Jews,  Unita- 
rians, Roman  Catholics,  Swedenborgians,  Mormonists,  &c.,  or 
any  other  sect  that  may  arise ;  only  there  may  be  a  species 
of  private  and  domestic  persecution  or  irritation  which  no 
civil  law  can  reach  or  prevent.  The  test  of  martyrdom  is 
over  as  regards  resistance  to,  or  non-compliance  with  the 
authorities  of  the  country. 

Dr.  Johnson  proceeded  to  define  the  gradation  of  thinking, 
preaching,  and  action.  At  last  a  gentleman  wished  to  know. 
Whether  there  was  not  a  material  difference  as  to  toleration 
of  opinions  which  lead  to  action,  and  opinions  merely  specu- 
lative ?  For  instance,  would  it  be  wrong  in  the  magistrate 
to  tolerate  those  who  preach  against  the  doctrines  of  the 
Trinity  ?  The  doctor  was  at  first  offended  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  such  a  subject  in  a  mixed  society,  but  afterward  re- 
plied, "  Why  then,  sir,  I  think  that  permitting  men  to  preach 
any  opinion  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Established  Church, 
tends,  in  a  certain  degree,  to  lessen  the  authority  of  the  church, 
and,  consequently,  to  lessen  the  influence  of  religion."  "  It 
may  be  considered,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  whether  it  would 
not  be  politic  to  tolerate  in  such  a  case."  Johnson. — "  Sir, 
we  have  been  talking  of  right ;  this  is  another  question.  I 
think  it  is  not  politic  to  tolerate  in  such  a  case." 

Yet,  if  it  be  proved  that  men  have  a  right  to  hold  and  to 
express  different  religious  opinions,  no  matter  what  the  relig- 
ious opinions  be,  it  must  be  right  to  tolerate  the  holding  and 
expression  of  those  opinions.  Our  Lord  and  His  apostles 
never  compelled  any  one  to  believe  what  He  or  they  ad- 
vanced :   all  was  invitation,  beseeching,  persuasion. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  2.7 

St.  Paul  speaks  of  those  whose  mouths  must  he  stopped 
(Titus  i.  11),  that  is,  they  must  be  confuted  by  sound  argu- 
ments ;  and  if  they  were  afterward  to  be  silenced  by  episco- 
pal authority,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  apostle  never  meant 
that  compulsion,  in  the  absence  of  earnest  persuasion,  should  be 
resorted  to.  He  also  delivered  over  Hymenseus  and  Alexander 
unto  Satan  on  account  of  their  false  doctrine,  or  apostasy  ; 
these  were  men  who  spoke  evil  (l3XaG(p7]iielv,  1  Tim.  i.  20), 
of  the  truth,  and  therefore  could  not,  of  course,  be  regarded 
as  members  of  a  community  that  held  the  truth,  i.e.,  the 
religion  of  Christ.  Such  men  could  not,  at  this  time,  either 
in  conscience  or  in  reason,  be  members  of  the  Christian 
church. 

But  no  one  regarded  the  freedom  of  the  will  more  than  our 
blessed  Lord  :  Ye  icill  not  come  unto  me,  was  his  pathetic 
lamentation.  We  can  well  understand  that  differences  of 
opinion  must  not  only  weaken  a  church,  or  ruin  a  sect,  but 
also,  act,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  detriment  of  religion,  es- 
pecially where  the  differences  are  not  managed  with  temper : 
but  still,  unity  of  opinion  should  be  voluntary  to  be  of  any 
avail,  and  any  system  of  compulsion  used  for  agreement, 
would  be  productive  of  far  worse  evils  than  the  permission 
of  contrariety  of  creed  could  bring  about  :=^  indeed,  but  for  the 

*  When  Dr.  Courayer,  a  Roman  Catholic  clerg3'nian,  remarkable 
for  his  moderation,  charity,  and  temper  concerning  religious  affairs,  iled 
to  Eno-land  after  giving  offense,  by  his  publications,  to  the  Cardinal  Do 
Noailles,  he  observed  to  Archbishop  Wake,  that  England  "v.'as  a  bad 
country  for  a  religious  man  to  reside  in,  because  of  the  unhappy  differ- 
ences in  religion,  by  which  mutual  charity  is  destroyed  ;  and  the  liber- 
ty which  many  take  of  speaking  against  the  doctrines  of  Christianity, 
and  corrupting  the  minds  of  the  people." — Bowyer,  p.  84. 

Courayer's  work  on  the  Validity  of  the  Ordinations  of  the  English 
(Ri vino-tons),  is  pretty  well  known.  He  says  in  his  Preface,  "  The 
thin<T  in  question  is  no  less  than  to  know  whether  the  Church  of  En- 
gland, formerly  so  illustrious,  and  even  now  so  respectable,  for  the  en- 
lio-htenment  of  her  prelates  and  the  erudition  of  her  clergy,  is  without 
a  succession,  without  a  hierarchy,  and  without  a  ministry."  He  also 
says,  "Having  always  found  in  the  greater  part  of  the  members  of  the 
Church  of  England  great  understanding,  and  a  veiy  extensive  knowledge 
of  ecclesiastical  antiquity,  &c.,  I  reckon  it  my  duty  to  do  them  the  just- 
ice the}^  deserve,  and  to  open  a  way  to  peace,  which  our  posterity  will 
perhaps  follow  with  more  success." 


•2-2S  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

allowance  of  secession  from  a  cliurch,  it  would  be  probable 
that  the  insincerity,  lukewarmness,  or  impatience  of  restraint 
long  pent  up  and  increasing,  would  at  last  burst  forth,  and  in 
its  very  fury  destroy  the  church  itself. 

At  another  time,  when  giving  his  usual  opinion,  that  the 
state  has  a  right  to  regulate  the  religion  of  the  people,  who 
are  the  children  of  the  state,  he  allowed,  after  looking  to 
other  states  than  our  own,  and  alluding  to  a  Brahmin  in  par- 
ticular, that  he  had  got  no  further  than  this,  "  Every  man 
has  a  right  to  utter  what  he  thinks  truth,  and  every  other 
man  has  a  right  to  knock  him  down  for  it.  Martyrdom  is 
the  test." 

And  in  support  of  his  distinction  between  liberty  of  con- 
science and  liberty  of  teaching,  he  said,  "  Consider,  sir,  if  you 
have  children  whom  you  wish  to  educate  in  the  principles  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  there  comes  a  Quaker  who  tries 
to  pervert  them  to  his  principles,  you  would  drive  away  the 
Quaker.  You  would  not  trust  to  the  predomination  of  right 
which  you  believe  is  in  your  opinions  ;  you  will  keep  wrong 
out  of  their  heads.  Now  the  vulgar  are  the  children  of  the 
state.  If  any  one  attempts  to  teach  them  doctrines  contrary 
to  what  the  state  approves,  the  magistrate  may,  and  ought 
to  restrain  him." 

As  far  as  regards  England  this  matter  need  not  be  debated, 
for  the  state  allows  its  children  to  be  taught  as  they  please. 
The  state  does  not  wish  to  drive  away  the  Quaker,  or  any 
other  religionist.  But,  were  it  otherwise,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  there  is  little  analogy  in  fact  between  children  of 
a  family,  and  childi-en  of  the  state.  The  one  is  young  and 
unknowing  :  the  other  adult,  and,  for  the  most  part,  educated. 
A  parent  would  probably  leave  the  choice  of  religion  open  to 
his  adult  sons,  and  at  all  events,  he  would  feel  that  it  would 
be  most  undesirable  to  enforce  it.  A  man  may  very  well 
say,  I  wish  to  see  toleration  of  all  opinions  among  mankind 
at  large,  although  I  do  not  like  to  practice  it  in  my  own 
young  family  circle  :  I  know  well  enough  that  the  matured 
mind  must  be  left  to  cherish  its  own  sincere  convictions,  but 
at  the  same  time  I  shall  endeavor  to  train  up  my  young 
children  in  those  doctrines  which  my  own  conscientious  con- 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  229 

victions  assure  me  are  right.  May  not  this  be  said  with 
reason  and  consistency  ?  For  while  he  claims  a  course  of 
action  for  himself,  he  grants  to  others  the  right  to  pursue 
their  course  ;  neither  yielding  one  atom  of  what  each  believes 
to  be  the  truth. 

Mr.  Seward  asked,  "  Would  you  restrain  private  conver- 
sation, sir  ?" 

Johnson. — "  Why,  sir,  it  is  difficult  to  say  where  private 
conversation  begins,  and  where  it  ends.  If  we  three  should 
discuss  even  the  great  question  concerning  the  existence  of  a 
Supreme  Being  by  ourselves,  we  should  not  be  restrained,  for 
that  would  be  to  put  an  end  to  all  improvement.  But  if  we 
should  discuss  it  in  the  presence  of  ten  boarding-school  girls, 
and  as  many  boys,  I  think  the  magistrate  would  do  well  to 
put  us  in  the  stocks,  to  finish  the  debate  there." 

Most  certainly  :  but  see  here,  on  his  own  showing,  the 
distinction  between  children  in  the  domestic  sense,  and  the 
children  of  the  state  I*      He  himself  a  child  of  the  state. 

Boswell  mentioned  his  having  heard  an  eminent  physician, 
who  was  himself  a  Christian,  argue  in  favor  of  universal 
toleration,  and  maintain  that  no  man  could  be  hurt  by  another 
man's  differing  from  him  in  opinion. 

Johnson. — "  Sir,  you  are  to  a  certain  degree  hurt  by  know- 
ine:  that  even  one  man  does  not  believe." 

Such  was  his  kindness. 

On  the  whole,  we  see  that  Dr.  Johnson  granted  liberty  of 
conscience,  but  not  liberty  to  preach  doctrines  contrary  to  the 
belief  of  the  essential  ones  of  the  Established  Church.      If  a 

*  It  may  be  said,  "  that  the  fact  is  overlooked  that  the  majority  of 
our  population  have  no  means  of  forming  a  right  judgment.  Sure  to 
go  wrong  if  left  to  themselves,  are  they  to  be  left  to  themselves  to  go 
wrong,  to  preserve  a  theory  of  private  judgment?"'  We  can  answer, 
You  must  do  what  you  can  to  educate  them  in  the  right,  and  to  per- 
suade them  to  adopt  and  follow  what  is  right,  but  you  can  do  no  more ; 
you  can  not  coerce  them ;  you  can  not  treat  grown-up  persons  (though 
in  reality  but  children  in  understanding)  as  you  would  treat  children. 
Dr.  Johnson  would  have  silenced  the  school-girls,  but  who  could 
silence  him  ?  And  yet  a  wrong  opinion  issuing  from  Dr.  Johnson's 
mouth  would  be  far  more  dangerous  than  the  same  from  the  mouth  of 
an  illiterate  person,  or  from  one  who  had  little  or  no  influence  on  the 
minds  of  others. 


230  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

man  did  so,  lie  should  be  prepared  to  suffer  martyrdom  ;  and 
for  this,  as  he  said,  should  feel  persuaded  that  he  has  a  par- 
ticular delegation  from  Heaven.  We  have  perfect  and  im- 
perfect obligations.  "  It  is  a  duty  to  give  to  the  poor  ;  but 
no  man  can  say  how  much  another  should  give  to  the  poor  ; 
in  the  same  way  it  is  a  duty  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  and  of 
consequence  to  convert  infidels  to  Christianity  :  but  no  man 
in  the  common  course  of  things  is  obliged  to  carry  this  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  incur  the  danger  of  martyrdom,  as  no 
man  is  obliged  to  strip  himself  to  the  shirt  in  order  to  give 
charity."  Well,  then,  there  must  be  the  delegation  from 
Heaven,  and  a  man  usually  thinks  he  has  this,  so  that  this 
requirement  abates  little  from  the  limits  of  toleration,  or  the 
obligations  of  martyrdom. 

And  now  a  few  words  on  toleration  in  general.  In  the 
first  place,  we  may  certainly  hold  that  Scripture  sanctions 
not  the  infliction  of  civil  penalties  in  order  to  enforce  an  ex- 
ternal unity  in  religion.  Scripture  allows  the  Christian 
church  a  right  of  excommunication,  but  not  a  right  over  the 
property,  liberty,  or  life  of  the  excommunicated.  All  civil 
laws,  then,  for  the  prevention  of  schism,  or  for  the  extirpa- 
tion of  religious  opinions,  are  purely  human  ;  and  are  only 
justifiable  in  those  extreme  cases  in  which  the  propagation  of 
such  opinions  would  be  found  to  be  detrimental  to  the  safety 
of  society,  or  the  preservation  of  its  welfare  and  peace. 

Let  the  knowledge  of  this  absence  of  Scriptural  right  be 
foremost  in  our  minds,  and  let  us  own,  that  the  very  thing 
which  the  church  can  not  scripturally  perform  by  her  own 
legislature  when  existent,  she  can  not  consistently  do  by  that 
which  is  now  her  legislature,  the  Houses  of  Parliament.  In 
times  past,  we  know  that  if  a  Calvinist  in  one  country,  or  a 
Jesuit  in  another,  were  caught  preaching,  they  were  put  to 
death  ;  or  if  men  doubted  on  the  matter  of  transubstantiation, 
they  were  burned  ;  and  yet,  if  we  look  at  the  severest  pas- 
sages in  Scripture,  that  of  Deut.  xiii.  1—10,  "If  among  you 
a  prophet  arise."  &c. ;  or  that  of  Matt,  xviii.  17,  "If  he 
neglect  to  hear  the  church,"  &;c. ;  or  that  of  Titus  iii.  10, 
"  A  man  that  is  an  heretic,"  &c. ;  we  shall  find  that  while 
the  two  latter  only  sanction  expulsion  from  the  ecclesiastical 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  231 

society  and  individual  companionship,  the  former,  though  in- 
volving a  command  for  the  summary  infliction  of  death,  yet 
is  not  applicable  to  these  cases  ;  for  neither  the  Calvinist,  nor 
Jesuit,  nor  common  Protestant,  besought  the  people  to  follow 
strange  gods.  In  violation,  however,  of  the  requirement  for 
the  carrying  out  of  this  command,  and  with  no  other  Scrip- 
tural order  more  stringent,  we  are  told  that  the  Counselor 
Dubourg,  the  monk  Jehan  Cauvin  (known  to  us  as  John 
Calvin),  the  Spanish  physician  Servetus,  the  Calabrian  Gen- 
tilis,  all  worshiped  the  same  God  ;  and  yet,  the  president 
Minard  caused  Counselor  Dubourg  to  be  burned  ;  and  Du- 
bourg's  friends  caused  President  Minard  to  be  assassinated  : 
John  Calvin  caused  the  physician  Servetus  to  be  roasted,  and 
this  act  was  approved  of  even  by  the  mild  and  dispassionate 
Melancthon  :  and  Calvin  had  likewise  the  consolation  to  be 
a  principal  means  of  bringing  the  Calabrian  Gentilis  to  the 
block  :  and  the  successors  of  John  Calvin  burnt  Anthony. 
It  is  well  asked,  Was  it  reason,  or  piety,  or  justice,  that  com- 
mitted these  murders  ?  There  was  no  sanction  from  the  Word 
of  God  :  for,  from  Deut.  xiii.  we  could  derive  no  authority  for 
putting  even  infidels  to  death  at  the  present  time,  any  more 
than  to  stone  the  Sabbath-breaker,  or  the  disobedient  to  parents. 
The  law  of  toleration  commends  itself  to  reasoning  minds, 
when  it  is  considered,  that  the  human  mind  is  fallible  and 
various.  Even  if  a  man  could  be  warranted  in  saying  that 
he  thought  himself  to  be  absolutely  right,  and  his  neighbor 
to  be  wrong,  still  he  must  remember  that  men's  minds  are 
differently  constituted,  that  their  intellectual  vision  extends 
not  to  the  same  depth  and  distance,  and  that,  hence,  upon 
almost  every  conceivable  subject  there  arises,  and  must  arise, 
differences  of  opinion  even  among  those  who  give  themselves 
to  study  and  inquiry.  The  more  we  become  acquainted  with 
mankind,  and  exercise  our  sagacity  in  determining  character, 
the  more  we  shall  observe  its  original  diversities  :  and  it  was 
the  idea  of  an  ancient  historian,*  that  there  is  a  wider  dif- 
ference between  the  individuals  of  our  kind,  than  what  is 
discernible  between  creatures  of  a  separate  order  :  and  a  mod- 
ern writer,!  who  knew  human  nature  well,  asserts,  that  the 
*  Plutarch.  t  Montaigne. 


232  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

distance  is  much  greater  between  man  and  man,  than  be- 
tween man  and  beast.  Surely,  then,  we  must  be  prepared 
to  expect  great  varieties  of  opinion  necessarily  to  spring  out 
of  the  differences  of  mind  and  disposition  in  the  human  race  ; 
and  to  acknowledge,  that  it  would  be  as  hard  to  subject  the 
mind  to  one  way  of  thought,  as  it  was  infamously  cruel  to 
adapt  the  body  to  the  bed  of  Procrustes. 

In  physical  and  mathematical  science  the  interference  of 
authority  has  been  found  to  be  ridiculous,  and  men  believe 
that  the  earth  moves  round  beneath  the  sun  although  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  v/ould  have  had  them  believe,  and 
Galileo  teach  otherwise.  Why  should  we  court  its  restraints 
in  our  inquiries  after  religious  truth  ?  Better  have  partial 
enthusiasm,  schism,  and  fanaticism,  three  dreadful  evils,  than 
the  more  dreadful  ones  of  stagnation,  compulsion,  and  ultimate 
torpor  or  death.  It  is  by  dispassionate  discussion,  and  by 
the  comparison  and  collision  of  opinions,  that  error,  however 
popular,  will  be  discarded,  and  the  truth  be  best  brought  to 
light ;  for  wherever  error  is  not  exposed  to  the  test  of  gen- 
eral examination,  it  may  have  an  extensive  and  undisputed 
sway  in  secret,  while  the  surest  way  of  contracting  its  empire, 
is  to  grant  facilities  to  the  general  power  of  investigating  its 
character.  On  the  other  hand,  let  Truth  ever  stand  for- 
ward without  fear,  concealment,  or  mystery,  ready  to  chal- 
lenge inquiry  :  and  whatever  can  not  be  maintained  by 
knowledge  and  reason  should  not  be  allowed  to  seek  even  a 
feeble  protection  from  judicial  severities.  It  must  never  be 
denied,  but  that  every  Christian  ought  to  believe  as  the 
church  of  Christ  believes,  provided  the  church  be  true  :  but 
the  question  is,  Which  is  that  true  churcli  ?  And  when  that 
is  answered,  as  a  man  may  unlawfully  execute  a  lawful  sen- 
tence, so  he  may  falsely  believe  as  the  true  church  believes  : 
for  if  I  believe  what  she  believes,  only  because  she  believes  it, 
and  not  because  I  am  convinced  in  my  understanding  and 
conscience  of  the  truth  of  what  she  believes,  my  faith  is  fal- 
tering, though  hers  be  true  :  it  is  not  intrinsically  true  to 
me,  because  I  have  no  evidence  of  it  :  it  is  taken  rather 
upon  trust,  and  what  is  taken  upon  the  trust  of  one,  may 
soon  be  transferred  upon  the  trust  of  another.      In  short,  I 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  233 

must  believe  as  the  true  church  beHeves,  yet  not  because  she 
so  beHeves,  but  for  the  same  reasons  that  she  herself  does  so 
believe,  because  none  can  truly  believe  as  she  believes,  but 
must  do  so  upon  the  same  principles  and  motives  for  which 
they  believed  that  first  made  up  that  Christian  church. ^^^ 
Once  rob  me  of  the  liberty  of  my  choice,  the  use  of  my  un- 
derstanding, the  distinction  of  my  judgment,  and  no  religion 
comes  amiss  ;  indeed  it  leads  to  no  religion.  It  was  the 
saying  of  Charles  the  First  to  the  then  Prince  of  Wales, 
"  Make  the  religion  of  your  education  the  religion  of  your 
judgment ;"  which  seems  to  be  of  the  nature  of  an  appeal 
from  his  education  to  his  judgment  about  the  truth  of  his 
religion  :  and  we  may  depend  upon  it,  that  any  portion  of 
religion  which  is  too  tender  to  be  examined,  is  unsound,  and 
our  holding  it  is  contradictory  to  apostolic  injunction,  P'rove 
all  things,  hold  fast  that  ivhich  is  good.  St.  Paul  had  no 
commission  or  power  over  conscience  otherwise  than  reason- 
ing and  persuasion  gave  him  ;  and  how  beautifully  he  wrote 
to  the  Corinthian  Church,  I^ot  for  tluit  we  liave  dominion 
over  your  faith,  hut  are  helpers  of  your  joy  (2  Cor.  i.  24) ; 
we  are  not  persecutors:  we  use  not,  as  Bishop  Middleton 
observes  on  this  text,  the  assumption  of  an  arbitrary  power, 
but  rather,  we  are  fellow-workers  of  your  joy. 

In  the  second  place.  What  good  is  gained  by  persecution? 

*  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  persons  of  learning  and  leisure  are 
here  spoken  of;  and  on  these  there  rests  a  great  responsibility,  for  they 
learn  not  only  for  themselves,  but  for  others.  Dr.  Johnson  said,  "All 
intellectual  improvement  arises  from  leisure :  all  leisure  arises  from  one 
working  for  another."  He  held  truly,  that  if  all  were  to  work  at  man- 
ual labor,  there  would  be  no  intellectual  improvement. 

It  is  certain,  that  a  great  proportion  of  the  poor  have  no  reason  for 
their  faith.  They  could  not  give  one  proof  that  the  Scripture  is  the 
"Word  of  God,  except  that  they  were  told  so  when  they  wei-e  children. 
Indeed  many  educated  persons  hold,  and  act  upon  many  articles  of  faith 
because  they  have  been  so  taught,  not  because  they  have  canvassed  the 
arguments  on  both  sides,  and  made  a  deliberate  choice.  The  Rev.  John 
Venn  (of  Hereford)  has  handled  this  matter  soundly  in  his  "  Christian 
Ministry  and  Church  Membership"  (Hatchard),  showing  that  life  is  not 
long  enough  for  such  discussions  to  the  great  bulk  of  mankind.  Jeremy 
Taylor  has  some  beautiful  sentiments  on  this  head,  and  speaks  of  being 
led  by  a  small  taper  into  an  admirable  and  happy  place.  See  Liberty 
of  Prophesying^,  Sec.  11—13,  generally;  also  his  Ductor  Dubitantium. 


234  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

It  produces  no  real  change  of  opinion,  but  simply  encourages 
the  semblance  of  change.      It  tends  to  make  men  false  and 
hypocritical  ;   dangerous  to  the  state,  because  it  is  a  maxim 
worthy  of  Caesar's  notice,  never  to  think  him  true  to  Ccesar, 
that  is.  false  to  his  own  conscience  ;   and  it  does  harm  to  re- 
ligion, by  engaging  men  in  its  profession  who  will  never  adorn 
it   by  their  practice.      And  to  the  Church  of  England,  the 
m.ost  pure,   learned,   and   apostolic  church  on  the  earth,   it 
ought  to  be  peculiarly  abhorrent.      If  she  practiced  it,  read- 
ily would  it  be  said,  not  only  by  malevolent  opponents,  that 
she  could  not  defend  herself  by  the  arguments  of  reason  and 
truth,  and  the  manifestation  of  her  utility,  seeing  she  called 
for  the  secular  arm  to  put  down  her  dissenting  enemies.      It 
would  be  an  imitation,  in  different  degree,  of  those  men  who 
bound  themselves  by  a  vow  to  kill   St.  Paul,  because  they 
could  not  answer  his  philosophy.      It  would  be  a  humiliating 
confession  that  good-will  opens  not  the  way  to  men's  hearts, 
and  that  those  who  are  forced  to  belong  to  her  are  more 
worth  having,  than  those  who  are  incited  purely  by  virtue  and 
piety.      Rather,  would  not  the  persecuted  and  persecutors  be 
wretched  neighbors  one  to  the  other  ?     The  Indian  Atabalipa 
rejected  the  Romish  baptism  because  of  the  Spanish  tyranny, 
whence  it  was  usual  with  those   poor  Americans  to  desire 
that  they  might  not  go  to  heaven  if  the  Spaniards  went  there, 
not  heeding  that  there  the  ivicked  cease  from  troubling.    No, 
the  persecuted  and  the  persecutors  can  only  be  friends  in  the 
sense  of  that  case  of  the  poor  negro  slave  who  was  overheard 
praying  for    the    conversion    of   his   cruel   master.      It  was 
stated  by  a  writer,^  who  knew  well  the  feelings  of  the  public 
mind,  of  the  Act  of  Toleration  which  passed  in  the  first  year 
of  William  and  Mary,  "  It  is  a  known  observation,  that  the 
dissenters  are   brought  into  the  methods  of  life  in  common 
with  the  best  and  most  polite  people,  and  crowds  of  the  gen- 
erations tvhich  have  groivn  up  tender  the  toleration  have 
conformed  to  the  church,  from  the  humanity  of  that  law. 
The  fathers  of  families  have,  perhaps,  found  some  pain  in  re- 
tracting their  errors,  and  in  going  into  new  communities  and 

*  Sir  Richard  Steele. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  235 

conversations,  bnt  ice  sec  thousands,  connive  at  the  conform- 
ity of  tlieir  cliildren  ;  the  parents  have  been  secretly  pleased 
at  their  sliding  into  that  economy,  for  which  the  fear  of  the 
imputation  of  self-interest,  or  apostasy,  prevented  them  in 
their  persons  to  declare."  And  the  same  change  is  apparent 
now.  The  repeal  of  the  Corporation  and  Test  Acts  in  the 
year  1828  has  served  to  strengthen  the  church,  and  never 
was  the  Church  of  England  so  esteemed  as  at  the  present 
time ;  showing,  that  free  toleration  of  all  religious  sects  is  to 
her  advantage,  and  that  it  is  soundness  and  earnestness  that 
in  the  long  run  prevail  in  the  minds  of  the  calm  and  rational 
majority  of  the  nation.  Lord  Brougham,  a  man  who  would 
not  endure  an  atom  of  religious  persecution,  has  lately  said,* 
"  He  had  often  confessed,  that  of  all  churches  of  which  he 
had  any  knowledge,  the  English  church  was  the  most  kind, 
the  most  peaceable,  and  the  most  tolerant,  and  even  dissenters 
cheerfully  confessed  that  she  possessed  all  these  attributes." 

Those  Toleration  Acts  have  given  to  the  church  a  firmer 
basis  of  popular  confidence  than  ever  she  before  enjoyed, 
on  a  principle  above  suggested  ;  they  are  the  safety  valve, 
on  the  same  principle,  against  national  explosions.  Let  her 
ever  act  on  such  views  ;  and  while  she  may  think  it  neces- 
sary not  to  abolish  all  tests  and  subscriptions  for  union  with 
herself,  let  her  remember  that  these  ought  to  be  made,  as 
Paley  has  laid  down,  as  simple  and  easy  as  possible,  always 
adapting  themselves,  in  matters  of  unessential  teaching,  to 
altered  circumstances ;  and  in  regard  to  the  admission,  with- 
out distinction,  of  all  good  and  competent  Christian  men  to 
civil  privileges  and  emoluments,  she  should  never  more  offer 
any  opposition,  but  rather  rejoice,  for  her  own  sake,  that  the 
day  of  complete  toleration,  as  spoken  of  by  Archdeacon  Paley, 
has  ultimately  arrived.  And  behold,  in  the  words  of  the 
renowned  Bishop  Horsley,  how  consistent  is  attachment  to 
the  church  with  the  toleration  of  others  ;  for  thus  the  best 
of  churchmen  will  ever  speak  :  "  Fixed,  my  lords,  as  I  am 
in  the  persuasion  that  religion  is  the  only  solid  foundation  of 
civil  society,  and  by  consequence  that  an  establishment  of 

*  House  of  Lords,  May  22,  1849. 


236  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

religion  is  an  essential  branch  of  every  well  constructed 
polity,  I  am  equally  fixed  in  another  principle,  that  it  is  a 
duty  which  the  great  law  of  Christian  charity  imposes  on 
the  Christian  Magistrate,  to  tolerate  Christians  of  every  de- 
nomination separated  from  the  established  church  by  consci- 
entious scruples,  with  the  exception  of  such  sects  only,  if  any 
such  sects  there  be,  which  hold  principles,  so  subversive  of 
civil  government  in  general,  or  so  hostile  to  the  particular 
constitution  under  which  they  live,  as  to  render  the  exterm- 
ination of  such  sects  an  object  of  just  policy. "=^  Happy  the 
churchman,  or  rather,  happy  the  man,  be  he  churchman  or 
dissenter,  who  strives  to  emulate  the  liberal  and  undaunted, 
yet  ever  judicious  and  devout  spirit  of  Bishop  Horsley  I 

Let  it  not  be  thought  that  any  attempt  is  here  made  to  set 
a  lesser  value  on  the  doctrines  of  the  church  of  Christ,  than 
on  the  laws  of  the  land.  It  is  especially  commanded  that 
the  civil  rulers  shall  not  bear  the  sword  in  vain  for  the  punish- 
ment of  evil  doers,  but  no  such  command  in  reference  to  the 
holding  of  Christian  doctrine  is  given.  A  heretic  is  to  be  re- 
jected, expelled,  without  pains  or  penalties,  from  the  ecclesi- 
astical body  ;  and  that  is  all.  The  church  is  to  show  noth- 
ing but  mercy  :  and  while  the  state  punishes  its  political 
schismatics  with  fine,  and  imprisonment,  and  transportation, 
and  death,  the  church  is  only  to  proceed  to  the  painful  duty 
of  excommunication  for  the  benefit  of  the  orthodox  body,  and 
with  the  hope  that  the  oftending  one  may  be  led  to  reflect  on 
the  article  of  belief  that  has  caused  his  separate  position,  and, 
it  may  be,  on  fur'ujr  investigation,  to  acknowledge  that  he 
has  strayed  from  iKe  truth. 

It  must  be  remembered,  that  all  disputes  and  divisions  are 
to  be  lamented  deeply,  however  proper  and  necessary  it  may 
be,  for  reasons  above  given,  to  tolerate  them  in  their  free  ex- 
pression and  act.  Without  unity  of  doctrine  or  government, 
without  even  so  much  of  consent  to  the  more  essential  points 

*  Speech  on  the  Second  Reading  of  the  Bill  for  the  Relief  of  Roman 
Catholics,  under  certain  conditions,  May  31,  1791.  The  latter  part  of 
this  sentence  agrees  with  what  Paley  more  fully  lays  down  as  the  second 
case  of  exclusion  by  test  laws.  See  Moral  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.  p.  341, 
20th.  edit.  1814. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  237 

of  Catholic  truth  as  shall  associate  men  in  an  unity  of  action,* 
while  it  permits  in  them  a  liberty  of  reserve  as  to  other  matters 
not  of  vital  importance,  it  is  not  to  be  hoped  that  the  church, 
can  either  bring  the  baptized,  in  one  holy  fellowship,  to  the 
stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ,  or  fulfill  the  noble  witness 
which  M^as  committed  to  her,  in  her  corporate  capacity,  to  bear 
to  the  world.  And  this  conviction  is  the  one  which  resist- 
lessly  presents  itself  to  the  mind,  and  most  distresses  the  heart 
of  any  Christian  man  taking  an  enlarged  view  of  the  present 
condition  of  Christ's  church  upon  the  earth. 

This  consideration  should  lead  men  to  be  very  careful  in 
their  reasons  for  separating  from  their  brethren,  whether  it 
be  from  their  brethren  of  the  Established  Church,  or  from 
their  brethren  who  have  formed  themselves  into  a  differ- 
ent establishment.  "  Schism,"  writes  the  Hon.  Baptist  Noel, 
"  is  division  among  the  disciples  of  Christ,  who,  as  one 
flock,  one  brotherhood,  one  body,  ought  to  be  united  ;  and  those 
who  cause  this  division  are  schismatics."  Let  us  accept  this 
definition  of  schism,  uniting  it  with  that  of  a  worthier  author- 
ity,! who  defines  schism  to  be  the  "  forsaking  external  com- 
munion purely  and  orderly  established  in  the  church  : "  and 
let  us  allow,  that  there  may  be  two  parties  in  the  encourage- 
ment of  schism,  those  who  require  assent  to  matters  unscrip- 
tural  or  inexpedient,  and  those  who  too  readily  dissent  from  a 
communion  which  is  purely  and  orderly  established.  The 
former,  in  the  words  of  Paley,  have  already  been  warned  : 
with  the  latter  we  have  now  to  do,  with  those  who  too 
hastily  quarrel  with  institutions,  and,  liking  to  show  their 
independence,  rather  follow  after  licentiousness  of  will  than 
liberty  of  investigation  :  men  who  are  slaves  to  passion  and 
novelty,  and  thus  prefer  the  changes  of  any  of  the  invented 
sects  rather  than  the  primitive  truths  of  the  inherited  church. 

Few  men  are  intellectual  and  conscientious  in  their  dissent, 
but  wherever  these  are  to  be  found,  we  must  respect  them. 
Dissenting  leaders  are  constantly  rebuking  those  of  their 
followers  who  come  not  after  them  upon  any  conviction  of 
mind  as  a  matter  of  conscience,  but  merely  from  very  inferior 

*  Church  of  Enjiland  Review.  t  Hooker. 


238  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND   DISSENTERS. 

motives.^  Still  whatever  be  the  motive,  they  should  practice 
toleration,  toward  others,  as  they  would  wish  it  to  be  observed 
toward  themselves.  Yet  w^e  find  too  many  who  are  extremely 
sensitive  in  this  respect  themselves,  lamentably  regardless  of 
it  toward  those  who  differ  from  them.  "  Toleration,"  says 
the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,!  "  is  a  great  good,  and  a  good  to  be 
imitated,  let  it  come  from  whom  it  will.  If  a  skeptic  is  toler- 
ant, it  only  shows  that  he  is  not  foolish  in  practice  as  well  as 
erroneous  in  theory.  If  a  religious  man  is  tolerant,  it  evinces 
that  he  is  religious  from  thought  and  inquiry,  because  he  ex- 
hibits in  his  conduct  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  import- 
ant consequences  of  a  religious  mind,  an  inviolable  charity  to 
all  the  honest  varieties  of  human  opinion."  Dr.  Arnold 
tells  us  of  the  "narrow  spirit  in  things  religious"  which 
showed  itself  in  the  conscientious  Puritans  :  and  he  noticed 
another  kind  of  abuse  of  religious  liberty,  and  says,  "  To  speak 
of  liberty,  when  we  mean  the  liberty  to  be  irreligious  ;  or  of 
freedom  of  conscience,  Avhen  our  only  conscience  is  our  con- 
venience, is  no  other  than  a  mockery  and  a  profanation."! 
The  quaint  Fuller,  alluding  to  the  intolerance  and  unreason- 
ableness of  the  Puritan  party,  speaks  of  them  as  "  those  who, 
desiring  most  ease  and  liberty  for  their  own  sides  when  bound 
with  episcopacy,  now  gird  their  own  garment  the  closest  about 
the  consciences  of  others." 

What  are  we  to  think  of  those  who  fled  from  episcopal  au- 
thority to  New  England,  there  to  exercise  the  most  dreadful 
kinds  of  persecution  ?  The  coercive  power  of  the  magistrate 
was  every  thing,  and  those  who  ventured  to  oppose  it  were 
cruelly  put  down  by  their  puritanical  brethren.  By  that 
natural  tendency  of  the  human  heart,  says  the  historian  ^  of 
this  period,  from  the  love  of  independence  to  that  of  tyranny, 
they  changed  their  opinions  as  they  changed  the  climate  ;  and 
only  seemed  to  arrogate  freedom  of  thought  to  themselves  in 
order  to  deny  it  to  others.      This  system  was  supported  by  the 

*  "  Intellectus  humanus,"  says  Lord  Bacon,  "luminis  sicci  non  est; 
sed  recipit  infusionem  a  voluntate  et  affectibus." — Novum  Organum, 
lib.  i. 

t  Letters  on  the  subject  of  Catholics,  p.  119. 

X  Lectures  on  Modern  History,  Lect.  6,  p.  237. 

§  Abbe  Raynal,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  239 

severities  of  the  law,  which  attempted  to  put  a  stop  to  every  dif- 
ference in  opinion,  by  imposing  capital  p^uii^hinctit  on  all  iclbo 
dissented  !  Whoever  was  either  convicted,  or  even  suspected, 
of  entertaining  sentiments  of  toleration,  was  exposed  to  such 
cruel  oppressions,  that  they  were  forced  to  fly  from  their  first 
asylum,  and  seek  refuge  in  another.  The  Quakers  suffered 
severely  from  these  dissenters,  and  the  persecution  was  at 
last  suppressed  only  by  the  intervention  of  the  mother  country  ! 

What  are  we  to  think  of  the  Anabaptists,  who,  after  they 
had  carried  fire  and  sword  into  a  great  part  of  Germany, 
under  the  idea  of  inspiration,  at  last  thought  themselves  in- 
spired to  compose  a  religious  code,  of  which  the  following  was 
the  first  Article  :  "In  the  mixed  system  of  intolerance  and 
mildness  by  which  they  are  guided,  the  Anabaptist  church, 
being  the  oidij  one  in  which  the  pure  word  of  God  is  taught, 
neither  can  nm'  ought  to  coinmunicate  with  any  other .' "  * 
A  portion  of  another  article  was,  that  the  "  baptism  of  infants 
is  an  invention  of  the  devil  and  of  the  Pope  I  "  forgetting  that 
it  was  universally  practiced  before  any  Pope  had  ever  existed. 

What  are  we  to  think  of  the  intolerance  (truly  and  strictly 
such)  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  which  every 
Presbyterian  teacher  in  Scotland  is  bound  to  sign  "  each  one 

*  An  old  Burgher  minister  at  Dalkeith  preached  against  Wesley, 
affirming  that  if  he  died  in  his  present  sentiments  he  would  be  damned  ; 
and  the  fanatic  declared  that  he  would  stake  his  own  salvation  upon  it. 
"  The  seceders,*'  says  Wesley,  "  Who  have  fallen  in  my  way,  are  more 
uncharitable  than  the  Papists  themselves.  I  never  yet  met  a  Papist 
who  avotced  the  principle  of  murdering  heretics.  But  a  seceding  min- 
ister being  asked,  '  Would  not  you,  if  it  was  in  your  power,  cut  the 
throats  of  all  the  Methodists  ?'  replied  directly,  '  Why,  did  not  Samuel 
hew  Agag  in  pieces  before  the  Lord  ?  '  I  have  not  yet  met  a  Papist  in 
this  kingdom  who  would  tell  me  to  my  face,  all  but  themselves  must  be 
damned  :  but  I  have  seen  seceders  enough  who  make  no  scruple  to  af- 
firm, none  but  themselves  could  be  saved!' — Southeys  Life  of  Wesley^ 
vol.  ii.  p.  384. 

In  a  work  by  a  very  able  man  (H.  I\I.  Elliot,  Esq.),  entitled  Biblio- 
graphical Index  to  the  Historians  of  Muhammedan  India,  we  have  a 
strong  instance  of  intolerance  and  bigotry  in  the  person  of  Abdu-1-Kadir, 
who  wrote  a  general  History  of  India  down  to  the  fortieth  year  of  the 
reign  of  the  Emperor  Aleban  (Delhi),  who  was  contemporary  with  our 
Queen  Elizabeth.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  he  imagines  every  evil  of 
the  king's  two  ministers  because  they  tolerated  the  religious  ceremonies 
of  the  Hindus  and  Gup^^--^^. 


240  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

of  them  for  himself,"  and  "  icitJi  their  hands  lifted  up  to 
the  Most  High  God,  to  swear!^'  See  in  the  second  bellig- 
erent article,  how  they  vow  to  extiiyate  whole  churches 
opposed  to  their  views  and  their  forms  of  church  government. 
In  short,  they  make  intolerance  an  article  of  their  religious 
creed  and  action  ;  they  sanctify  their  tongues  and  right  arms 
with  it ;  they  will  not  admit  the  exercise  of  toleration.  This 
is  very  dreadful,  and  while  we  mourn  over  the  excesses  of  a 
Chreighton,  or  a  Claverhouse,  we  can  not  but  acknowledge 
their  temper  and  spirit  of  persecution  to  be  verily  incarnated 
in  the  Presbyterian  body.*"  A  Locke,  a  Grotius,  an  Arnold, 
could  not  take  these  oaths  :  the  very  idea  would  cause,  as  it 
were,  a  revulsion  of  the  heart's  blood  in  such  men.  What 
a  free  and  noble  system  of  religious  hberty  did  our  great  phi- 
losopher form  for  Carolina  :  and  blessed  will  be  the  time 
when  the  Grotian  theory  of  union,  indorsed  by  Arnold,  shall 
be  accepted  willingly  in  the  Christian  church  :  and  all  your 
Solemn  Leagues  and  Covenants,  Westminster  Confessions, 
Directories,  &c.,  banished  from  men's  lips  and  hearts  for  ever. 
For  after  all,  it  is  not  systems  and  creeds  that  make  men 
tolerant,  and  merciful,  and  kind,  but  the  inward  heart  of 
Christian  love.  "  Good  temper,"  exclaimed  a  bishop,  "  is 
three-fourths  of  Christianity."  How  beautifully  Hooker  said, 
"  I  take  no  joy  in  striving,  I  have  not  been  trained  up  in 
it:"  and  he  prays,  that  "no  strife  may  ever  be  heard  of 
again,  but  this,  who  shall  hate  strife  most,  also  shall  pursue 
peace  and  unity  with  swiftest  paces."  Jeremy  Taylor  saith 
well  and  kindly,  "  That  a  thing  is  not  true,  is  not  argument 
sufficient  to  conclude,  that  he  that  believes  it  true  is  not  to 
be  endured  ;"  that  is,  we  ought  to  have  no  personal  hatreds. 
And  John  Smith,  of  Cambridge,  hits  off  the  true  Christian 
conduct,  when  he  says,  "  There  is  a  knowing  of  the  truth  as 
it  is  in  Jesus,  as  it  is  in  a  Christ-like  nature,  as  it  is  in  that 
sweet,  mild,  humble,  and  loving  spirit  of  Jesus,  which  spreads 
itself  like  a  morning  sun  upon  the  souls  of  good  men,  full  of 
light  and  life."  It  was  a  wise  saying  of  Lord  Coke,  the 
renowned  lawyer,  "  Whatever  grief  a  man  hath,  ill  words 

*  To  enter  fully  into  Scottish  persecution,  see  Bramhall's  Works, 
vol.  iii.  p.  241,  &c. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  211 

work  no  good,  and  learned  counsel  never  use  them."  And 
the  good,  and  learned  Robert  Boyle, ^  had  possessed  himself 
with  such  an  amiable  view  of"  religion,  that  he  liked  no  nar- 
row thoughts,  or  superstitious  practices,  or  sourness  of  parties, 
nor  any  nicety  that  occasioned  divisions  among  Christians. 

In  reading  the  above  observations,  let  the  distinction  be- 
tween indifference  and  the  genuine  spirit  of  toleration  be 
carefully  marked.  Some  persons  may  be  tolerant  because, 
like  Gallio,  they  care  for  none  of  these  things  ;  they  have 
little  regard  for  any  religion,  and  do  not  wish  to  know  what 
is  the  truth,  or  what  parties  are  best  established  in  the  truth. 
It  is  no  credit  to  such  persons  to  be  tolerant ;  their  tolerance 
springs  out  of  indifference  or  indolence,  or  want  of  spiritual 
discernment.  But  other  men  cherish  strong  apprehensions 
of  the  truth,  or  of  what  they  consider  to  be  truth  :  they  would 
not  resign  it  but  with  their  lives,  and  would  have  all  men 
to  believe  as  they  themselves  believe  ;  thinking  that  their 
doctrine  and  their  church  is  founded  on  the  primitive  custom 
and  creeds  and  not  to  be  set  aside  by  every  new-fangledness, 
and  exteraporal  lightness,  or  conceit  of  their  more  changeable 
fellow-creatures.  Now  when  these  men  stand  fast  to  their 
own  views  and  principles,  setting  an  exceeding  intrinsical 
value  on  them,  and  yet  give  full  liberty  to  others  whose  later 
novelties  they  condemn,  then  toleration,  in  the  virtue  of  its 
highest  principle,  is  exercised  ;  and  the  generosity  and  kind- 
ness of  their  Christianity  is  nobly  manifested  to  the  world. 
For  toleration  is  like  the  virtue  of  forgiveness  of  injuries  ;  the 
deeper  the  injury  the  grander  the  forgiveness.  Toleration 
does  not  imply  compliance  or  compromise,  but  the  temper 
with  which  we  bear  other  persons'  views  and  dispositions. 
So  saith  the  pious  Hannah  More,  "  Oh,  how  I  hate  faction, 
division,  and  controversy  in  religion  I  And  yet  if  people  will 
advance  dangerous  absurdities  till  they  become  popular,  truth 
must  not  be  left  to  shift  for  herself."  But  of  the  alienation 
of  heart  among  Christian  people,  perhaps  John  Newton  f 
speaks  best.      He  wants  to  know,  how  it  is  that  members  of 

*  See  the  Appendix  to  the  Life  of  Loi'd  Orrery,  by  Eustace  Budgell, 
Esq.  2d.  edit  1734. 

t  Letter  to  Hannah  More,  vol.  iii.  p.  19,  of  her  Memoirs. 


242  OPINIONS  ON  DliSSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

the  same  body,  partakers  of  the  same  grace,  are  often  so  shy 
and  suspicious  of  one  another  :  so  inconsistent  with  them- 
selves and  their  principles  ?  And  he  gives  as  a  reason,  the 
painful  fact,  that  they  are  still  encumbered  with  a  remnant 
of  pride,  prejudice,  and  self-will.  Satan  has  a  magic  glass, 
and  there  are  certain  magical  words,  most  of  which  owe 
their  influence,  if  not  their  origin  to  him.  The  believer, 
when  he  looks  at  a  brother  Christian,  as  he  would  hope  he 
is,  "sees  a  Calvinist,  or  an  Arminian,  a  High  Churchman, 
a  Sectary,  a  Methodist,  &c.  One  of  these  names,  perhaps, 
he  prides  himself  in  avowing,  and  therefore  allows  that  those 
who  bear  it  must  be  infallibly  right  :  the  others  he  dislikes, 
and  therefore  takes  it  for  granted  that  those  who  bear  them 
must  be  wrong  :  and  though  he  would  hope  the  best,  he  is 
not  desirous  of  actual  commvinion  with  such  perverse,  mis- 
taken people.  And  yet,  perhaps,  some  of  them  are  much 
more  spiritual,  humble,  and  exemplary  than  himself  But 
he  sees  them  through  the  medium  of  party  prejudice,"  &c. 

The  above  is  too  true  a  picture  of  the  religious  world,  by 
one  who  knew  it  well.  True  toleration  would  at  once  dissi- 
pate all  this  kind  of  narrow,  denominational  feeling.  Let 
not  the  word  and  name  of  toleration  be  despised,  especially 
by  those  who  can  not  rise  to  its  smallest  exercise.  Happy 
the  time  when  toleration  is  swallowed  up  in  union  I  Mean- 
while, since  differing  creeds  and  parties  must  yet  be  presented 
before  the  eyes  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  world, 

"  Let  them  see, 
That  as  more  pure  and  gentle  is  your  faith, 
Yourselves  are  gentler,  purer."  * 


*  Robert  Southey. 


CHATTER  XV. 

MORE  OriNIONS  ON,  AND  TREATMENT  OF  DISSENTERS. 

It  will  be  perceived  that  the  desire  of  toleration  just 
offered  exceeds  that  of  Dr.  Johnson ;  and  yet  while  he  could 
not  tolerate  certain  doctrines,  forms  of  church  government, 
and  modes  of  proceedings  among  dissenters,  he  ever  tolerated 
their  persons,  so  long  as  ignorance  or  moral  misbehavior  did 
not  drive  him  him  to  refuse  companionship. 

One  anecdote  will  especially  show  us  Dr.  Johnson's  pre- 
dominant feeling  in  regard  to  the  Church  of  England,  namely, 
of  its  superiority.  Dr.  Robertson,  the  historian,  who  was 
very  companionable,  once  said,  "  Dr.  Johnson,  allow  me  to 
say  that  in  one  respect  I  have  the  advantage  of  you  :  when 
you  were  in  Scotland  you  would  not  come  to  hear  any  of 
our  preachers,  whereas,  when  I  am  here  I  attend  your  public 
worship  without  scruple,  and  indeed  with  great  satisfaction." 
Johnson  answered,  "  Why  sir,  that  is  not  so  extraordinary  : 
the  king  of  Siam  sent  embassadors  to  Louis  the  Fourteenth, 
but  Louis  the  Fourteenth  sent  none  to  the  king  of  Siam," 
There  is  an  historical  mistake  here,  but  we  can  not  mistake 
Johnson's  meaning.  However,  he  liked  to  converse  with 
Robertson,  though  he  could  not  suffer  his  religious  views. 

Boswell  had  hired  a  servant  in  London  who  was  a  Pwoman 
Catholic.  He  asked  Johnson  whether  this  should  prevent 
his  taking  him  to  Scotland.  "Why,  no,  sir,"  replied  John- 
son, "  if  he  has  no  objection,  you  can  have  none."  This  led 
to  a  brief  conversation,  in  which  he  expressed  his  dislike  of 
the  Presbyterian  religion;  and  on  Boswell  asking  his  reason, 
he  said,  "  Why,  sir,  the  Presbyterians  have  no  church,  no 
apostolical  ordination."  "  And  do  you  think  that  absolutely 
essential,  sir?"  asked  Boswell.  "Why,  sir,"  answered 
Johnson,  "  as  it  was  an  apostolical  institution,  I  think  it  is 


244  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

dangerous  to  be  without  it.  And,  sir,  the  Presbyterians 
have  no  pubhc  worship  :  they  have  no  form  of  prayer  in 
which  they  know  they  are  to  join.  They  go  to  hear  a  man 
pray,  and  are  to  judge  whether  they  will  join  with  him." 
What  pith  and  marrow  in  this  observation  I 

We  may  be  surprised  that  Boswell  did  not  stand  up  more 
for  his  views.      The  Presbyterians,  of  course,  think  they  have 
a  church,  and  apostohcal  ordination.*      Johnson  would  have 
taken  up   a  stronger  position  on   their  want  of  succession. 
The  one,  however,  is  involved  in  the  other,  and  he  would 
soon  have   come  to  it.      Certainly  he  states  a  strong  reason, 
in   these   days   of   many    opinions,    against    extemporaneous 
prayer  in  a  public  congregation.      To  him  this  must  have 
been  insurmountable.      Let  us  only  imagine  his  awful  manner 
of  composing  himself  for  prayer  :   his  love  for  devoutness,  and 
for  holy  and  reverent  expressions,  without  passion  and  with- 
out  exaggeration  :   feeling  himself  in  the  very  presence  of  the 
Jehovah,  with  that  Jehovah's  eye  upon  his  heart ;   fearful, 
before  all  things,  lest  a  flippant  or  presumptuous  word  escape 
his  lips  :  just  see  him  on  his  knees  with  his  awful  counte- 
nance  and   humbled   heart,   and   then   consider   with   what 
horror  he  would  hear  the  fluent  and  familiar  language  which 
too  often  pervades  prayer — prayer  which  should  ever  be  most 
chastened,  most  solemn  in  its  every  word.      To  any  man  the 
confusion  must  be  great,  when  he  prepares  himself  for  prayer 
and  can  not  join  in  the  petitions  ;   and  yet  how  often  must 

*  The  Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  have  yet  to  go  to  Scrip- 
ture, and  examine  it  carefullyj  in  regard  to  matters  o("  church  formation 
and  discipline.  Dr.  Wardlaw  takes  one  view,  and  Dr.  Davidson  an- 
other. The  latter,  however,  seems  to  think  that  the  precedents  and 
precepts  of  apostolic  men  are  not  binding  on  future  times ;  that  churches 
in  the  present  day  ''  may  make  new  regulations,  and  change  apostolic 
practices''^  (p.  24)  ;  and  the  former  denies  that  the  decree  of  the  Coun- 
cil at  Jerusalem  was  inspired  !  Dr.  Campbell,  in  Lectures  on  Ecclesi- 
astical History,  Lect.  4,  p.  81,  says,  "In  regard  to  those  politics 
which  obtain  at  present  in  the  diflex-ent  Christian  sects,  I  own  ingenuously, 
that  I  have  not  iVamd  one,  of  all  that  I  have  examined,  which  can  be 
said  perfectly  to  coincide  with  the  model  of  the  apostolic  church.'''  See 
an  able  article  in  the  British  Quarterly  Review  for  May,  1848.  Also 
a  review  of  the  Duke  of  Argyle's  work,  "  Presbytery  l-^xamined,"  in 
the  North  British  Review,  No.  20,  p.  445,  &c. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  245 

this  be  the  case  with  the  better-informed  and  more  devout 
minds  I  Hence  we  find  that  the  meetings  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  are  rarely  opened  with  prayer  :  and 
though  persons  meet  to  circulate  that  Book  which  commands 
prayer,  yet  they  can  not  practice  its  injunctions  for  fear  of 
offending  one  another.  The  Bible  authority  for  the  use  of 
a  liturgy  is  great ;  and  certainly  there  is  this  advantage,  that 
we  know  beforehand  what  we  shall  pray  for,  and  it  is  open 
to  us  either  to  comply  or  to  keep  away. 

Boswell  attempted  to  propitiate  Johnson  by  saying,  '<  But, 
sir,  their  doctrine  is  the  same  with  that  of  the  Church  of  En- 
gland. Their  Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  Thirty-nine  Ar- 
ticles, contain  the  same  points,  even  the  doctrine  of  predesti- 
nation." "Why,  yes,  sir,"  said  Johnson,  "predestination 
was  a  part  of  the  clamor  of  the  times,  so  it  is  mentioned  in 
our  articles,  but  with  as  little  positiveness  as  could  be."  It 
makes  a  difference,  certainly,  whether  decided  prominence  be 
given  to  a  doctrine,  or  whether  it  be  barely  admitted  :  but 
we  must  recollect  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  predestination, 
absolute  and  conditional,  contended  for,  and  the  Church  of 
England  would  only  support  the  latter  ;  and  her  positiveness, 
not  little,  for  her  article  is  a  grand  one,  would  lie  all  on  that 
side.  Boswell  should  have  thought,  that  when  dissenters 
speak  of  their  slight  differences,  and  plead  for  sameness  with 
the  church  in  all  essentials,  it  may  very  properly  be  asked 
them,  Why  they  dissent  at  all  ?  why  break  through  the 
bonds  of  fellowship,  and  cover  the  earth  with  divisions,  when 
they  acknowledge  that  the  causes  are  unessential  ?  Strictly 
speaking,  we  should  not,  perhaps,  call  the  members  of  the 
Scotch  Kirk,  dissenters.  They  never  separated  from  2is  : 
they,  as  a  National  Church,  are  independent  of  tcs,  though 
schismatics  as  regards  the  Church  Catholic. 

Dr.  Johnson's  plain  straightforward  manner  in  talking 
with  Boswell  and  other  Presbyterians,  may  put  us  in  some 
degree  in  mind  of  Lord  Thurlow's  way.  A  body  of  Presby- 
terians once  made  an  application  to  his  lordship  to  assist  in 
repealing  certain  statutes  which  disqualified  them  from  hold- 
ing civil  offices.  He  received  the  deputation  with  great 
civility,  but,  in  his  own  blunt  manner,  replied,  "  Why,  gentle- 


246  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

men,  if  your  old,  sour  religion  had  been  the  Establishment,  I 
might  have  complied  :  but  as  it  is  not,  you  can  not  expect 
me  to  accede  to  your  request."  They  retired  smiling,  says 
Lord  Campbell  ;*  and  probably  less  dissatisfied  than  if  he  had 
tried  to  reason  them  into  a  conviction  of  the  justice  of  the 
Test  and  Corporation  Acts.  They  knew  the  manner  of  this 
powerful  judge,  and  respected  its  sincereness. 

Boswell  must  have  been  inclined  in  great  degree  to  the 
Church  of  England.  Johnson  said  to  him,  "  Sir,  the  holy 
days  observed  by  our  church  are  of  great  use  in  religion." 
And  the  Presbyterian  allows  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  this, 
if  the  number  be  not  too  extensive.  He  recommends  Nelson's 
"  Festivals  and  Fasts,"  as  a  most  valuable  help  to  devotion, 
and  states  that  it  has  met  with  the  greatest  sale  of  any  book 
ever  printed  in  England,  except  the  Bible  :  also  he  highly 
commends  two  sermons  on  this  subject  by  Archdeacon  Pott. 
And  then  he  expresses  himself  in  this  remarkable  M^ay  :  "I 
am  sorry  to  have  it  to  say,  that  Scotland  is  the  only  Christian 
country,  Catholic  or  Protestant,  where  the  great  events  of  our 
religion  are  not  solemnly  commemorated  by  its  ecclesiastical 
Establishment,  on  days  set  apart  for  the  purpose." 

We  have  now  got  well  rid  of  the  Roman  Catholic  calen- 
dar of  saints'  days  ;  we  care  neither  for  the  ordinance  of 
Bishop  Niger,  or  the  provincial  constitution  of  Archbishop  Islip ; 
the  bulls  of  Popes  have  passed  away,  and  we  of  the  Church 
of  England,  only  keep  days  in  celebration  of  the  saints  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  festivals  in  honor  of  great  facts  connected 
with  our  Lord's  sojourn  and  ministry  on  the  earth.  These 
are  all  days  of  useful  instruction,  and  the  antiquity  of  this 
sacred  custom  commends  it.  It  ought  to  be  esteemed  a  hiffh 
privilege  to  steal  away  from  the  cares  and  business  of  life, 
and  from  the  boisterous  ones  of  the  world,  to  hear,  from  the 
Scripture  and  from  discourses  on  the  lives  of  the  saints,  in 
the  sanctuary,  of  those  who  have  already  chanted  forth,  in 
triumphal  strain,  "O  death,  where  is  thy  sting?  O  grave, 
where  is  thy  victory  ?"  Surely  much  spiritual  knowledge 
and  refreshment  may  be  thus  gained,  and  the  little  knot  of 
persons  who  may  assemble  in  parish  churches  on  the  week 
*   Lives  of  the  Lord  ChancellorSj  vol.  v.  p.  662. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  247 

day  seem  best  to  be  those  "  who  going  through  the  vale  of 
misery  use  it  for  a  \vell."=^ 

Not  only  had  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Scotland,  in  Dr. 
Johnson's  opinion,  no  apostolic  ordination,  liturgy,  and,  as 
Boswell  says,  no  observance  of  holy  days,  but  the  doctor  in- 
sisted also  that  there  were  no  thcoloerical  works  of  merit 
written  by  any  of  its  ministers  ;  and  his  remark  was  not 
satisfactorily  contradicted. 

Nothing  could  induce  him  to  enter  a  Presbyterian  church. 
He  could  dine  with  the  minister  and  be  very  friendly  :  he 
would  even  call  the  new  road  to  the  church  which  Boswell's 
father  had  made,  by  the  name  of  the  Via  Sacra,  but  he 
would  not  enter  its  sacred  portals.  Boswell  gives  this  note 
of  Nov.  7,  1773  :  "  My  father  and  I  went  to  public  worship 
in  our  parish  church,  in  which  I  regretted  that  Dr.  Johnson 
would  not  join  us :  for  though  we  have  there  no  form  of 
prayer,  nor  magnificent  solemnity,  yet,  as  God  is  worshiped 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,  and  the  same  doctrine  is  loreached  as 
in  the  Church  of  EngJaiul,  my  friend  would  certainly  have 
shown  more  liberality,  had  he  attended.  I  doubt  not,  how- 
ever, but  he  employed  his  time  in  private  to  very  good  pur- 
pose. His  uniform  and  fervent  piety  was  manifested  on 
many  occasions  during  our  tour,  which  I  have  not  mention- 
ed." 

Before  this,  he  had  refused  to  go  and  hear  Principal 
Pv^obertson  preach.  We  have  his  reason  :  "I  will  hear  him,"' 
said  he,  "if  he  will  get  up  into  a  tree  and  preach  ;  but  I 
will  not  give  a  sanction,  by  my  presence,  to  a  Presbyterian 
assembly." 

He  was  staying  at  a  Presbyterian's  house,  where  it  was 
thought  he  might  not  like  to  join  in  family  prayer.  The 
host  would  have  omitted  prayer  altogether,  but  on  his  scru- 
pulosity being  mentioned  to  Johnson,  the  latter  said  he  had 
no  objection  to  hear  the  prayer.  Mr.  Grant  having  prayed, 
Dr.  Johnson  said  his  prayer  was  a  very  good  one,  but  objected 
to  his  not  having  introduced  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Johnson 
says,  in  his  Journey,  of  this  omission  generally  :  "  The  mcst 
learned  of  the  Scottish  doctors  would  now  gladly  admit  a 
*  Psalm  Ixxxiv.  6. 


218  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

form  of  prayer,  if  the  people  would  endure  it.  The  zeal 
or    rajre    of   cono^resrations    has    its    difiereiit    deorees.      In 

COO  O 

some  ^;aris/ies  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  suffei'ed  I  in  others 
it  is  still  rejected  as  a  form,  and  he  that  should  make  it 
part  of  his  supplication,  would  be  suspected  of  heretical 
pravity  I" 

How  different  is  this  custom  to  that  of  the  Church  of 
England  I  for  she  will  have  no  Service  of  Prayers  without 
including  the  Lord's  Prayer  ;  and  hence,  since  three  Ser- 
vices have  been  thrown  into  one,  this  holy  prayer  tnay  seem 
to  occur  too  often  :  and  yet,  which  of  the  Services  could  we 
deprive  of  it  ? 

Why  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  should  often  entirely 
reject  its  use,  is  extraordinary.  For  in  their  own  Directory 
for  worship  it  is  not  only  recommended  as  a  pattern  for  prayer, 
but  alloived  to  he  used  as  a  form.  And  the  same  assembly 
of  divines  who  made  that  Directory,  in  their  annotations 
upon  the  Lord's  Prayer,  say  the  same  ;  so  that  from  the 
avowed  principles  of  the  Presbyterians,  the  Lord's  Prayer 
may  be  used  in  their  prayers. 

And  as  regards  the  use  of  forms  of  prayer,  it  is  clear  that 
such  were  used  by  the  Jews,  and  by  the  Christians,  both 
before  and  after  immediate  inspiration  ceased.  In  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy,  there  is  a  set  form  of  blessing,  of  confession, 
and  of  prayer.  Moses  prayed  by  a  form  (Numb.  x.  35); 
and  David's  Psalms  are  so  many  stated  forms  of  prayers  and 
praises  by  alternate  response  of  priest  and  people,  much  in 
our  own  liturgical  form.  Our  Lord  frequented  the  Jewish 
worship,  and  he  sanctioned  a  form  of  prayer.  During  the 
first  five  centuries  of  the  Christian  church,  we  find  several 
Liturgies  composed. 

Not  only  our  own  Heformers  retained  and  loved  a  Liturgy, 
but  the  foreign  Heformers  also  countenanced  such  a  form. 
Thus  Luther  made  a  Liturgy  for  the  Church  of  Wittenberg; 
and  all  the  Lutheran  churches  have  a  stated,  prescribed  form, 
which  they  constantly  use. 

Calvin  composed  a  Liturgy,  which  was  used  in  Geneva, 
and  (where  they  could  do  it)  in  France;  and  that  he  ap- 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  219 

proved  of  Liturgies  is  plain  from  a  letter  he  wrote  to  the 
Protector  of  England.  ^ 

But  what  is  most  to  the  purpose,  John  Knox  also  com- 
posed ^  a  Liturgy.  He,  who  "dreaded  one  mass  more  than 
ten  thousand  armed  men  ;"  he,  whose  intellect  and  flow  of 
language,  we  may  suppose,  never  failed  him ;  he  still  thought 
the  use  of  a  Liturgy  advisable  ;  and  more  than  one  eminent 
divine  of  the  Scottish  church,  in  this  day,  have  expressed 
earnest  desire  for  a  liturgical  form  of  prayer  ;  and  certainly 
a  greater  earnest  of  union  and  stability  can  hardly  be  con- 
ceived. We  may  reasonably  say,  that  it  is  the  Liturgy  of 
the  Church  of  England,  far  more  than  her  articles,  or  canons, 
or  homilies,  all  put  together,  that  has  kept  her  so  united, 
and  so  strong.  Besides  this,  when  we  consider  what  the 
extemporaneous  effusions  of  many  men  must  be,  it  is  an 
awful  thing  to  call  the  Holy  Ghost  the  patron  of  all  their 
diverse  prayers  :  while  a  prayer  well  considered,  often  writ- 
ten, often  corrected,  beneath  the  sought  aid  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  more  likely  to  be  in  accordance  with  the  word  and 
will  of  God.  Strange  that  men  who  suppose  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  direct  all  their  prayers,  should  never  depend  on  the 
Holy  Spirit  for  a  psalm  or  a  hymn,  or  for  an  extemporane- 
ous tune,  but  in  this  case  always  seek  what  is  written,  and 
trust  to  the  efforts  of  learning  and  memory.  Surely,  a  little 
consideration  on  this  fact,  and  its  legitimate  inference,  ought 
to  open  their  eyes,  and  bid  them  know  that  there  are  such 
qualities  largely  inherent  in  the  human  mind  as  self-delusion 
and  self-presumption. 

Dr.  Johnson  felt  strongly  on  the  subjects  of  religion  and 
the  church,  and,  as  we  have  said  before,  we  must  make  al- 
lowance for  exclusive  adhesion  to  what  a  man  so  firmly  be- 
lieves to  be  the  truth,  and  regard  any  sentiments  of  toleration 
in  such  a  one  to  be  of  far  more  value  than  if  proceeding 
from  the  minds  of  the  careless  and  the  indifferent.  He  must 
have  looked  upon  the  Scottish  Presbyterian  church  as  one 
begotten  and  cradled  in  murder  and  blood,  not,  like  his  own,- 
reared  on  the  deaths  of  its  own  martyrs  ;  to  him  it  must 
have  been  politically  abhorrent,  not  only  as  so  inveterate 
*  See  Calvin,  Ep.  87,  ad  Protect.  Angl. 


250  OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

against  the  Stuart  race,  but  as,  by  its  democratic  form  of 
ecclesiastical  institutions,  countenancing  a  like  form  of  civil 
government ;  and  religiously  he  must  have  disliked  it,  because 
he  would  think  there  could  not  be  the  spirit  of  devoutness, 
and  the  form  of  sound  words,  either  in  desk  or  pulpit,  to 
which  he  would  have  been  accustomed  in  the  English 
church  ;  and  never,  as  we  may  see,  did  he  go  into  the  pres- 
ence-chamber without  due  feelings  of  reverence  and  devotion. 
We  may  be  very  certain  that  no  spirit  of  mean  pride,  or 
rivalry,  or  paltry  exclusiveness  actuated  him,  but  that  he 
refused  because  his  conscience  told  him  it  was  simply,  yet 
sternly,  his  duty  to  do  so. 

With  more  cordiality  we  can  support  him  in  refusing  to 
go  to  a  kind  of  religious  Robin-Hood  Society  in  London,  to 
hear  a  discussion  by  lawyers'  clerks,  petty  tradesmen,  and 
low  mechanics,  on  the  mysterious  text  of  Matt,  xxvii.  52, 
53.  Mrs.  Hall  said,  it  was  a  very  curious  subject,  and  she 
should  like  to  hear  it  discussed.  Johnson  replied,  warmly, 
"  One  would  not  go  to  such  a  place  to  hear  it ;  one  would 
not  be  seen  in  such  a  place,  to  give  countenance  to  such  a 
meeting."  "  But,  sir,"  said  she,  with  all  the  eager  curiosity 
of  a  woman,  "  I  should  like  to  hear  you  discuss  it."  But 
he  seemed  reluctant  to  engage  in  it.  This  was  the  rever- 
ential  feature  of  his  character.  But  great  men  do  not  flip- 
pantly talk  on  all  subjects,  on  all  occasions,  at  all  times.  It 
was  once  said.  We  see  such  men  as  the  late  Earl  of  Orrery, 
the    late    Earl    of   Shaftesbury,   the    late   Mr.  Addison,   Mr. 

Prior,  and  Mr.  Mainwaring  sit  silent,  while ,  and , 

and  ,  and  ,   hold  forth  upon  every  subject  that 

falls  under  debate. 

We  may  be  more  confirmed  in  our  belief,  that  Dr.  John- 
son most  conscientiously  abstained  from  entering  a  Presby- 
terian church*  (and  recollect,  the  pious  Hannah  More, 
though  much  tempted,  never  entered  a  dissenting  chapel  in 
the  whole  course  of  her  life),t  when  we  view  his  conduct 
toward  Presbyterian  ministers  individually.      Boswell  says  : 

*  He  also  never  entered  a  non-juring  meeting-house,  though  his 
feelings  were  with  the  non-jurors, 
t  Memoirs,  vol.  iii.  p.  125. 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  251 

"  Dr.  Johnson,  though  he  held  notions  far  distant  from  those 
of  the  Presbyterian  clergy,  yet  could  associate  on  good  terms 
with  them.  He  indeed  occasionally  attacked  them.  One 
of  them  discovered  a  narrowness  of  information  concern i no- 
the  dignitaries  of  the  Church  of  England,  among  whom  may 
be  found  men  of  the  greatest  learning,  virtue,  and  piety,  and 
of  a  truly  apostolic  character.  He  talked  before  Dr.  John- 
son of  fat  bishops  and  drowsy  deans,  and,  in  short,  seemed  to 
believe  the  illiberal  and  profane  scoffings  of  professed  satirists 
or  vulgar  railers.  Dr.  Johnson  was  so  highly  offended,  that 
he  said  to  him,  '  Sir,  you  know  no  more  of  our  church  than 
a  Hottentot.'  "  Boswell  adds,  "I  was  sorry  that  he  brought 
this  upon  himself" 

The  question  was  once  started,  how  far  people  who  dis- 
agree in  a  capital  point  can  Hve  in  friendship  together. 
Johnson  said  they  might,  while  Goldsmith  held  they  could 
not.  The  former  cited  the  instance  of  himself  and  Burke, 
stating  that  the  subject  on  which  persons  disagree  must  be 
shunned.  "  I  can  live  very  well  with  Burke,"  he  said  ;  '•'  I 
love  his  knowledge,  his  genius,  his  diffusion  and  affluence  of 
conversation  ;  but  I  would  not  talk  to  him  of  the  Rocking- 
ham party."  Goldsmith  insisted  that  the  shunned  subject 
would  be  the  very  one  that  people  would  have  the  greatest 
eagerness  and  curiosity  to  enter  upon  ;  as  when  Blnebeard 
says,  "You  may  look  into  all  the  chambers  but  one,"  we 
should  have  the  greatest  inclination  to  look  into  that  cham- 
ber. "  Sir,"  replied  Johnson,  loudly,  "  I  am  not  saying  that 
you  could  live  in  friendship  with  a  man  from  whom  you  dif- 
fer as  to  some  point ;  I  am  only  saying  that  I  could  do  it." 

Yes,  he  could  do  it  ;  though  if  the  adverse  opinion  were 
urged,  he  could  be  angry  with  the  man.  '•  Every  man,"  he 
said  at  another  time,  "who  attacks  my  belief'  in  Christian- 
ity, "  diminishes  in  some  degree  my  confidence  in  it,  and 
therefore  makes  me  uneasy  ;  and  I  am  angry  with  him  who 
makes  me  uneasy."  And  again  :  "  Every  man  will  dispute 
with  great  good  humor  upon  a  subject  in  which  he  is  not  in- 
terested." And  so  Gallio  cared  for  none  of  these  things  ;  the 
disputes  about  a  religion  in  which  he  did  not  himself  believe 
were  of  no  concern  to  him  ;  and  such  was  the  Roman's  pel- 


252  OriNlONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

icy  under  the  circumstances.  But  with  Johnson,  even  in 
these  Presbyterian  cases,  a  certain  degree  of  sacrifice  was  to 
be  made. 

In  another  place,  we  are  told,  "  Though  Johnson  loved  a 
Presbyterian  the  least  of  all,  this  did  not  prevent  his  having 
a  long  and  uninterrupted  connection  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  James 
Fordyce,  who,  since  his  death,  hath  gratefully  celebrated  him 
in  a  warm  strain  of  devotional  composition." 

The  celebrated  Dr.  Blair,  whose  sermons  are  so  well  known 
for  their  stern  moral  sentiments,  was  introduced  to  him  by 
Dr.  Fordyce.  Of  him  he  once  said,  "  I  read  yesterday  Dr. 
Blair's  sermon  on  devotion,  from  the  text,  '  Cornelius,  a  de- 
vout man.'  His  doctrine  is  the  best  limited,  the  best  ex- 
pressed ;  there  is  the  most  warmth  without  fanaticism,  the 
most  rational  transport.  There  is  one  part  of  it  which  I 
disapprove,  and  I'd  have  him  correct  it  ;  which  is,  '  that  he 
who  does  not  feel  joy  in  religion  is  lar  from  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  !'  There  are  many  good  men  whose  fear  of  God  pre- 
dominates over  their  love.  It  may  discourage.  It  was 
rashly  said.  A  noble  sermon  it  is  indeed.  I  ivish  Blair 
would  come  over  to  the  Church  of  Euglcmdy 

A  good  wish  this,  and  proving  the  sincerity  of  his  love  for 
the  Church  of  England  ;  for  all  who  really  love  her  will  ever 
desire  to  see  all  excellence  thriving  within  her  pale,  all  that 
is  corrupt  and  sluggish  cast  out.  Dr.  Johnson's  remark  about 
fear  predominating  over  love  in  many  minds,  is  good,  because, 
though  we  are  told  that  "  perfect  love  casteth  out  fear,"  there 
is  an  allusion  here  only  to  slavish  fear,  a  terror  of  God,  rather 
than  that  proper  and  reverential  fear  which  an  Apostle  com- 
mands, and  which  is  to  be  cherished  to  the  end  of  our  lives. 
We  are  not  required  to  feel  the  same  kind  of  familiar  love 
toward  God  which  we  entertain  toward  human  friends ;  and 
Croker  well  observes,  in  a  short  comment  on  this  passage  in 
Blair's  sermon,  that  "  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  one's 
wife  or  friend  are  certainly  not  the  same  passion."  Lucas 
states,  in  a  more  grave  manner,  although  Croker's  remark  is 
just,  that  our  love  of  God  is  not  merely  an  honorable  opinion 
of  him,  but  a  passion  or  affection  :  "  the  Scripture,"  he  says, 
"  expresses  this  love  by  delight  and  joy,  by  desire  and  long- 


OPINIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS.  2.-i3 

ing,  hu?ige}-i?ig,  ihirsti?ig,  seeking,  and  the  like.  If  we  love 
God  above  all  things,  our  hearts  will  be  where  our  treasure 
is ;  our  affections  will  be  fastened  on  things  above  ;  and  our 
conversation  will  be  in  heaven,  because  our  God  is  there  :" 
yet,  in  order  to  prevent  persons  from  being  too  much  cast 
down  because  they  lack  a  high  degree  of  ardor,  he  continues  : 
"  God  is  a  being  infinitely  above  our  conceptions,  and  that  of 
him  which  we  do  conceive,  as  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness, 
though  amiable,  yet  are  spiritual,  and  not  the  objects  of  sense, 
and  therefore  do  not  move  us  with  the  same  violence  that 
sensible  things  do  ;  whence  it  is  easy  to  conclude,  that  our 
love  of  God  is  of  a  different  nature  from  that  we  pay  the 
creature  ;  'tis  a  more  spiritual  affection  mixed  with  adoration; 
'tis  an  awful  desire  of  pleasing  and  enjoying  him,  not  always 
terminating  in  so  vehement  and  sensible  a  passion  as  visible 
objects  beget  in  us  ;  and  therefore  the  safest  way  is  to  judge 
of  our  state,  not  by  transports,  but  by  the  firmness  of  our 
resohitio?is,  and  by  the  constancy  and  cheerfulness  of  our 
obedience."^  The  italics  are  his  own  marks  of  the  stress  he 
desired  to  place  upon  these  words.  Sir  Walter  Scott  sadly 
confounds  the  different  meanings  which  may  be  given  to  the 
same  term,  when  he  commences  some  beautiful  lines  with  the 
words, 

"In  peace  love  tunes  the  shepherd's  reed,"  &c. 

and  gives  this  conclusion, 

"  For  love  is  heaven,  and  heaven  is  love." 

Blair's  sermons  are  not  read  in  the  present  generation  so 
much  as  their  value  entitles  them  to  be.  There  are  two 
very  expressive  ones,  on  the  texts,  "All  this  availeth  me 
nothing,  so  long  as  I  see  Mordecai  the  Jew  sitting  at  the 
king's  gate  ;"  and,  "  Thine  own  friend,  and  thy  father's  friend, 
forsake  not." 

Abernethy  and  Gibbons  were  dissenting  divines  whose  works 
Dr.  Johnson  perused.  Of  the  latter,  he  says,  "  I  took  to  Dr. 
Gibbons,"  And  again,  he  said  to  Mr.  Charles  Dilly,  "  T  shall 
be  glad  to  see  him.  Tell  him,  if  he'd  call  on  me,  and  dawdle 
over  a  dish  of  tea  in  an  afternoon,  I  shall  take  it  kind."  Of 
*  Lucas's  Practical  Christianity,  chap.  v.  p.  88,  89. 


254  Oi>INIONS  ON  DISSENT  AND  DISSENTERS. 

Baxter  and  many  other  of  the  elder  non-conformists  we  know 
that  he  thought  highly,  but  approvmg  of  their  piety  when 
grave,  more  than  admiring  their  learning  ;  for  in  his  mind 
the  bishops  and  clergy  were  most  profound  in  knowledge, 
scriptural,  or  classical  ;  and  certainly  it  would  have  been  a 
shame  to  them  if  they  did  not  excel,  for  they  have  more  ma- 
terials within  their  reach,  and  deeper  sources  from  which  to 
inform  and  embellish  their  minds,  than  the  many  who  are 
not  united  with  the  universitie*  and  public  libraries  can  pos- 
sibly have.  His  distinction  of  the  different  degrees  of  attain- 
ment of  learning  was  thus  marked  upon  two  occasions.  Of 
Queen  Elizabeth  he  said,  "  She  had  learning  enough  to  have 
given  dignity  to  a  bishop  ;"  and  of  Mr.  Thomas  Davies  he 
said,  "  Sir,  Davies  has  learning  enough  to  give  credit  to  a 
clergyman." 

Whitfield,  when  in  Scotland,  notes  that  one  of  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Associate  Presbytery  preached  upon  the  text, 
«'  Watchman,  what  of  the  night  ?"  &c.  "  T  attended,"  says 
Whitfield  ;  "  but  the  good  man  so  spent  himself,  in  the  former 
part  of  his  sermon,  in  talking  against  prelacy,  the  Common 
Prayer-book,  the  surplice,  the  rose  in  the  hat,  and  such  like 
externals,  that  when  he  came  to  the  latter  part  of  his  text, 
to  invite  poor  sinners  to  Jesus  Christ,  his  breath  was  so  gone, 
that  he  could  scarce  be  heard."* 

To  one  of  his  correspondents  at  this  time,  Whitfield  replied, 
*'  I  wish  you  would  not  trouble  yourself  or  me  in  writing 
about  the  corruption  of  the  Church  of  England.  I  believe 
there  is  no  church  perfect  under  heaven  ;  but  as  God,  by 
His  providence,  is  pleased  to  send  me  forth  simply  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  all,  I  think  there  is  no  need  of  casting  myself 
out." 

*  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  230. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

Dr.  Johnson  evidently  liked  what  he  saw  during  scant 
opportunities  of  John  Wesley.  He  said,  "  John  Wesley's  con- 
versation is  good,  but  he  is  never  at  leisure.  He  is  always 
obliged  to  go  at  a  certain  hour.  This  is  very  disagreeable  to 
a  man  who  loves  to  fold  his  legs  and  have  out  his  talk,  as  I 
do."  Again  he  said,  "  He  can  talk  well  on  any  subject ;" 
but  thought  he  did  not  believe  the  ghost  story  on  sufficient 
authority,  and  lamented  that  Wesley  did  not  take  more  pains 
to  inquire  into  the  evidence  for  it.  Johnson  afterward  gave 
Boswell  a  note  of  introduction  to  Wesley,  "  because"  he  says 
in  the  note  itself,  "  I  think  it  very  much  to  be  wished  that 
worthy  and  religious  men  should  be  acquainted  with  each 
other."  Boswell  had  thus  an  opportunity  of  conferring  with 
Wesley  on  the  matter  of  the  appearance  of  the  ghost  at  New- 
castle-upon-Tyne, but  the  evidence  did  not  satisfy  him,  although 
Wesley  believed  it. 

Few  men  have  had  more  accusers  than  Wesley,  and  few 
men  engaged  warmer  friends.  Let  us  pass  by  the  abuse, 
and  receive  the  character  given  of  him  by  a  high  churchman, 
and  his  familiar  friend.  "  My  whole  soul,"  says  Alexander 
Knox,  Wesley's  "dear  Allick,"  "rises  against  those  vile  al- 
legations of  ambition  and  vanity  :  above  both  of  which  my 
precious  old  friend  soared,  as  much  as  the  eagle  above  the 
glow-worm.  Great  minds  are  not  vain ;  and  his  was  a  great 
mind,  if  any  mind  can  be  made  great,  by  disinterested  be- 
nevolence, spotless  purity,  and  simple  devotedness  to  that  one 
Supreme  Good,  in  whom  with  the  united  aLoOi]Oig  of  the 
philosopher  and  the  saint,  he  saw,  and  loved,  and  adored,  all 
that  was  infinitely  amiable,  true,  subUme,  and  beatific."*' 

*  How  different  is  this  to  the  ultra-evangelical's  view  of  "Wesley  ! 
Romaine,  in  a  letter  to  Lady  Huntingdon,  says  :  "  I  pity  Mr.  John  from 
my  heart.     Hi;?  societies  are  in  great  confusion;  and  the  point  which 


256  THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

Again  he  writes,  "  In  John  Wesley's  views  of  Christian 
perfection  are  combined,  in  substance,  all  the  sublime  moral- 
ity of  the  Greek  Fathers,  the  spirituality  of  the  mystics,  and 
the  divine  philosophy  of  our  favorite  Platonists.  Macarius,  Fe- 
nelon,  Lucas  and  all  their  respectivec  lasses,  have  been  consult- 
ed and  digested  by  him  ;  and  his  ideas  are,  essentially,  theirs  ;" 
and  he  especially  praises  him  for  having  popularized  these 
sublime  lessons  in  his  hymns. 

But  this  was  the  doctrine  which  called  up  so  many  relig- 
ious enemies  against  him.  Knox,  on  reading  the  Life  of 
Hey,  says,  "  I  then  saw  in  a  light  which  never  before  struck 
me,  that  the  real  motive  with  John  Wesley  was,  the  dread 
of  Calvinist  infection,  then  beginning  to  grow  rife  in  churches. 
Before  this  consideration,  with  him  every  thing  but  moral 
evil  fell  flat."  Here  we  have  the  clew  to  the  raging  contro- 
versies of  1772  and  1773,  in  which  Toplady  and  Fletcher, 
Rowland  Hill  and  others  were  so  excitingly  engaged.  On 
the  Calvinistic  side  appeared,  "  Farrago  double  distilled  ;" 
"An  old  Fox  tarred  and  feathered;"  "Pope  John,"  &g.  ; 
"  More  work  for  John  Wesley :"  while  on  the  Wesleyan  part 
the  title  of  "  Devil-factors"  was  given  to  the  Calvinists  ; 
"  Satan's  synagogue;"  "  Advocates  for  sin  ;"  "  Witnesses  for 
the  father  of  lies;"  "Blasphemers;"  "Satan-sent  preachers;" 
"  Devils,  liars,  fiends."  Wesley  himself  thus  summed  up 
the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Toplady's  pamphlet  on  Predestination  : 
"  The  sum  of  this ;  one  in  twenty  (suppose)  of  mankind  are 
elected  ;  nineteen  in  twenty  are  reprobated.  The  elect  shall 
be  saved,  do  what  they  will ;  the  reprobate  shall  be  damned, 
do  what  they  can.  Reader,  believe  this  or  be  damned." 
With  this  view  of  Calvinism,  Wesley  might  truly  be  horri- 
fied ;  but  this,  though  it  might  become  the  legitimate  fruit 
of  the  Lambeth  Articles,  is  not  the  doctrine  of  Calvin 
himself.      No   man   has   suHered   more   from   the    misrepre- 

brouffht  them  into  the  wildness  of  rant  and  madness  is  still  insisted  on 
as  much  as  ever.  I  fear  the  end  of  this  delusion.  As  the  late  alarm- 
ino-  Providence  has  not  had  its  proper  effect,  and  perfection  is  still  the 
cry,  God  will  certainly  give  them  up  to  some  more  dreadful  thing. 
May  their  eyes  be  opened  before  it  be  too  late  .'•'  Wesley  himself  com- 
plained of  the  bitter  opposition  of  such  men  as  Whitfield,  Madan,  Haw- 
els,  Berridge,  &c. — Lady  Huntingdon's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p,  329. 


THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS.  257 

sentations  of  friends  and  followers  than  Calvin ;  and  Wesley 
himself  has  been  frequently  placed  in  the  same  predicament. 

This  acrimonious  controversy,  discreditable  to  both  parties, 
was  suspended  during  a  portion  of  the  two  following  years, 
on  account  of  the  interest  taken  in  the  dispute  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  colonies  ;  both  Wesley  and  Fletcher,  with 
many  other  religious  persons,  being  induced  to  write  on  polit- 
ical matters.  Fletcher  wrote  so  well,  that  it  is  reported,  the 
Lord  Chancellor  desired  to  know  if  he  wished  any  preferment 
in  the  church  :  and,  as  to  Wesley,  it  was  alleged  that  he 
wished  to  be  made  a  bishop.  But  his  "  Calm  Address  to 
our  American  Colonies,"  though  ineffectual,  is  as  reasoning  a 
production  as  it  is  deeply  loyal.  The  only  strange  thing  is 
to  find  such  arguments  proceeding  from  Wesley  :  not  but 
that  he  Avas  always  loyal  to  the  backbone;  but  it  agrees  not 
with  his  ecclesiastical  doings.  In  the  first  paragraph  put 
the  word  "  Church"  for  "  Charter,"  and  apply  it  to  "  Meth- 
odists" instead  of  "Americans,"  audit  will  be  seen  what  we 
mean.  Again,  "  No  province  can  confer  provincial  privileges 
on  itself;"  and  "  A  corporation  can  no  more  assume  to  itself 
privileges  which  it  had  not  before,  than  a  man  can,  by  his 
own  act  and  deed,  assume  titles  or  dignities."  Yet  Wesley, 
when  he  pleased,  could  make  a  bishop,  or  desire  to  get  him- 
self made  one,  without  lawful  imposition  of  hands  ;  thus 
acting  for  himself,  and  his  own  assumption  of  power,  while 
he  is  blaming  the  Americans  for  not  being  completely  obedi- 
ent to  the  higher  authority.  "  No  governments  under  heaven," 
he  says,  "  are  so  despotic  as  the  Republican."  Again,  "Re- 
publics show  no  mercy  ;"  and  he  concludes,  "  Let  us  put 
away  our  sins,  the  real  ground  of  all  our  calamities  :  ivhicli 
never  will  or  can  be  thoroughly  removed,  till  we  fear  God 
and  honor  the  king.'^ 

Dr.  Johnson,  in  writing  a  brief  note  to  Wesley,  took  occa- 
sion to  thank  him  for  his  American  views.  "  I  have  thanks," 
he  says,  "  likewise  to  return  you  for  the  addition  of  your  im- 
portant suffrage  to  my  argument  on  the  American  question. 
To  have  gained  such  a  mind  as  yours  may  justly  confirm  me  in 
my  own  opinion."  "  In  this  little  pamphlet,"  says  Southey,* 
*  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  421. 


258  THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

"he  pursued  the  same  chain  of  reasoning  as  Dr.  Johnson  had 
done,  and  maintained  that  the  supreme  power  in  England 
had  a  legal  right  of  laying  any  tax  upon  them,  for  any  end 
beneficial  to  the  whole  empire."  Forty  thousand  copies  of 
this  "Calm  Address"  were  printed  in  three  weeks.  A  friend 
to  the  Methodists  obtained  possession  of  all  the  copies  sent  to 
New  York,  and  destroyed  them,  foreseeing  the  imminent  dan- 
ger to  which  the  preachers  would  be  exposed,  if  a  pamphlet 
so  unpopular  in  its  doctrines  should  get  abroad.  Bos  well 
finds  fault  with  Wesley  for  the  course  he  took  ;  and  when 
Dr.  Johnson  had  said,  "  Whitfield  had  a  mixture  of  politics 
and  ostentation,  whereas  Wesley  thought  of  religion  only  ;" 
he  observes  in  a  note,  "  That  can  not  be  said  now,  after  the 
flagrant  part  which  Mr.  John  Wesley  took  against  our 
American  brethren,  when,  in  his  own  name,  he  threw  among 
his  enthusiastic  flock  the  very  individual  combustibles  of  Dr. 
Johnson's  '  Taxation  no  Tyranny  ;'  and  after  the  intolerant 
spirit  which  he  manifested  against  our  fellow  Christians  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  communion,  for  which  that  able  cham- 
pion. Father  O'Leary,  has  given  him  so  hearty  a  drubbing." 
The  American  question  was  one  out  of  tivo  political  matters 
only,  on  which  Boswell  differed  from  Johnson.  Dr.  Towers, 
a  Unitarian  minister,  was  a  chief  opponent  of  the  doctor's 
views  ;  while  Mr.  Orme,  the  able  and  eloquent  historian  of 
Hindostan,  said  :  "  Had  I  been  George  the  Third,  and  thought 
as  he  did  about  America,  I  would  have  given  Johnson  three 
hundred  a  year  for  his  '  Taxation  no  Tyranny,'  alone." 
George  the  Third,  always  friendly  to  Wesley,  must  have 
been  as  glad,  but  in  a  more  honest  manner,  of  his  alliance 
on  this  serious  occasion,  as  King  James  was  of  the  time-serv- 
ing countenance  of  William  Penn  the  Quaker ;  for  both  held 
sway  over  an  inflammable  portion  of  the  people. 

But  while  we  allow  a  high  personal  character  to  Wesley, 
we  can  not  give  our  approval  to  every  item  of  his  public 
career  and  conduct.      Knox*  could  not  do  so,  neither  could 

*  Wilberforce  writes  to  Mr.  Stephen  :  "  Alexander  Knox  is  a  man 
of  great  piety,  uncommon  reading  (uncommon  both  in  quality  and 
quantity),  and  extraordinary  liveliness  of  imagination  and  powers  of 
conversation.     He  is  really  well  worth  your  going  ovex  on  purpose  U 


THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS.  259 

Johnson.  The  former  truly  loved  him,  and  held  him  up  as 
an  instance,  "  how  happily  the  most  finished  courtesy  may  be 
blended  with  the  most  perfect  piety."  And  of  his  followers, 
he  could  write,  "  I  have  been  much  with  Methodists  these 
eight  days  past.  There  are  most  excellent  persons  among 
them  :  and,  I  will  add,  the  tniest  churchmen  in  the  worlds 
He  states,  however,  that  the  majority  of  preachers  have  been 
bred  dissenters,  and  are  still  too  much  so  at  heart ;  "  but  a 
good  cause,"  the  cause  of  the  church,  "  is  itself  a  counterpoise 
to  number  ;"  so  he  hopes  the  well-disposed  part  will  carry 
it  above  the  other.  At  a  farther  period,  he  states  that  the 
preachers  are  not  losing  ground  in  their  adherence  to  the 
Established  Church ;  that  they  attended  the  Cathedral 
service  and  sacraments  at  Armagh,  and  took  back  such  a 
good  account  of  the  archbishop's  sermon,  that  Dr.  Coke  sat 
down  and  wrote  an  apologetic  letter  to  the  primate,  express- 
ing his  regret  that  his  wife's  indisposition  had  prevented  his 
attendance,  and  declaring  his  attachment,  and  that  of  the 
Methodists,  to  the  Establishment. 

Again,  after  much  "  pleasant  talk"  with  them,  he  says  : 
"  The  Methodists,  without  any  outward  alteration  that  any 
one  could  discover  but  ourselves,  might  positively,  in  my 
judgment,  become  the  most  efficient  friends  of  the  Established 
Church,  simply  by  being  brought  to  breathe  the  same  spirit 
with  itself" 

At  another  time  we  find  him  saying,  "  I  wrote  a  pretty 
long  letter  on  the  question,  «  Ought  a  member  of  the  Church 
of  England  to  forsake  the  Methodist  society,  through  fear  of 
being  liable  to  the  guilt  of  schism  ?'  I  was  obliged  to  say, 
I  think  not.  What  new  shape  the  Methodists  may  be  ac- 
quiring, I  will  not  pronounce.  But  judging  by  their  char- 
acter heretofore,  though  I  must  deem  them  irregular,  I  can 
not  account  them,  schismatical,  because  they  do  not  yet  exhibit 
separate  coynmiinion.  Considering  them,  therefore,  as  irreg- 
ular, I  would  not  advise  any  one  to  unite  himself  to  their 
society  :  but  not  regarding  them  as  schismatical,  I  would 

talk  with  bira.  He  was  once,  strange  to  say,  Lord  Castlereagh's 
private  secretary.  He  is  the  very  last  man  I  should  havo  conceived  to 
have  gravitated  to  Lord  Castlereagh." 


260  THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

not  advise  any  one,  now  in  it,  to  forsake  it.  I  mean,  I 
would  not  do  so,  in  ordinary  circumstances,  lest,  in  depriving 
a  weak  Christian  of  his  go-cart,  I  might  incapacitate  him 
for  going  at  all."  He  fears  that  symptoms  are  appearing 
of  a  new  character,  to  which  his  reasoning  would  not  apply.* 
But  under  any  circumstances  he  thinks  it  best  to  defend  the 
church  rather  by  proofs  of  superior  excellence,  than  by  ex- 
clusion of  privileges ;  and  fully  to  maintain  her  cause,  on 
grounds  of  good  sense,  without  trenching  on  any  feeling  of 
charity.  "Let  the  Methodists  act  as  they  may,"  he  observes, 
"  I  should  not  deem  it  right  to  frighten  weak  women  with 
menances  of  damnation." 

He  also  says,  when  expressing  friendly  relations  toward 
them,  "  I  conceive  Wesleyan  Methodists,  not  dissenterized, 
are  comparatively  with  all  others,  our  next  of  kin."  And 
yet,  with  every  kind  disposition  toward  them,  he  could  not 
help  discerning  their  inferiority.  "No  community,"  he  writes, 
"  needs  more  to  be  kept  on  safe  ground,  for  they  have  miser- 
ably bad  anchorage.  They  seem  to  think  none  like  them- 
selves :  whereas  no  well-meaning  religionists  can  have  a  worse 
defined  theological  creed  than  themselves."  He  dislikes 
"  the  animality  of  Methodism  :"  and  he  thinks  that  though 
they  can  awaken  men  to  the  elementary  principles  of  religion, 
they  can  not  conduct  them  on  to  maturity — they  can  lay  the 
foundation,  but  not  build  thereon. 

The  fact  is,  that  Wesley  was  a  man  raised  up  for  a  great 

*  It  should  be  remembered,  that  Knox's  remarks,  as  he  himself  else- 
where states,  apply  only  to  Irish  Methodists;  he  knew  nothing  of  En- 
glish Methodism ;  and  the  latter  certainly  exhibits  separate  and  schis- 
matieal  communion.  Unless  this  be  stated,  Knox's  real  sentiments 
may  be  misapprehended.  Robert  Hall,  the  eminent  dissenter,  states, 
however,  of  England,  '*  Nothing  was  farther  from  the  views  of  these 
excellent  men  (Whitfield  and  Wesley),  than  to  innovate  in  the  estab- 
lished religion  of  their  country  :  their  whole  aim  was  to  recall  the 
people  to  the  good  old  way^  and  to  imprint  the  doctrine  of  the  Articles 
and  Homilies  on  the  spirits  of  me?i.''^ — HalVs  Works^  vol.  ii.  p.  294. 
See  Correspondence  between  Knox  and  Jebb,  Letter  58,  vol.  i.  p.  419, 
for  an  interesting  conversation  between  Knox  and  a  ^Methodist,  on  the 
Methodists  having  no  idea  what  it  was  to  leave  first  principles.  See 
also  Jones's  Life  of  Bishop  Home,  in  Jones's  Works,  p.  145,  vol.  vi. ; 
Wesley's  excuse  for  making  bishops  consisting  of  the  fear  of  the  Ana- 
baptists. 


THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS.  261 

and  signally  useful  purpose  ;  and  that  purpose,  under  God, 
he  nobly  effected  :  but  it  is  equally  clear  that  his  example 
was  not  to  be  a  pattern  for  all  times,  neither  was  his  system 
to  be  one  of  continuance.  We  can  discern  this,  when  we 
regard  his  own  sayings  and  doings,  and  notice  the  schisms 
that  have  weakened,  and  are  weakening  Wesleyan  Methodism. 

For  instance,  when  Wesley  said  "  The  world  is  my  parish," 
he  announced  a  magnificent  career  for  himself,  but  not  one 
that  could  be  followed,  or  is  followed,  by  Churchman  or 
Wesleyan,  afterward,  without  causing  confusion.  Wesleyan 
Methodism  has  its  circuits  and  stations  as  regularly  marked 
out,  though  not  so  permanently  it  may  be,  as  the  church 
owns  its  dioceses  and  parishes ;  and  no  Wesleyan  minister  can 
now  cry  out,  any  more  than  a  clergyman,  that  "  the  world 
is  his  parish."  The  saying  is  obsolete.  Although  it  suited 
Wesley's  object,  yet  each  man  now  is  best  located  in  his 
determined  district  :  and  what  should  we  think  of  a  farmer 
who  left  off'  the  cultivation  of  his  own  allotted  farm,  and 
crying  out,  "  The  world  is  my  farm,"  should  set  about  urging 
and  helping  every  body  else  ?  This  is  clearly  one  of  the 
exploits  of  Wesley's  career,  which  is  not  to  be  imitated  : 
and,  most  probably,  if  not  most  certainly,  in  these  vigorous 
days  of  the  church,  and  with  large  populations  to  be  attended 
to,  Wesley  himself  would  be  the  last  man  to  make  the  excla- 
mation again  ;  for  such  places  as  Leeds,  Manchester,  Black- 
burn, &c.,  would  be  found  by  him  to  be  "world"  sufficient 
for  a  display  of  all  his  labor  and  all  his  zeal. 

Next,  in  the  case  of  Wesley  making  bishops,  we  see  not 
only  a  present  absurdity,  and  a  contradiction  to  his  own  belief, 
but  also  an  affair  which  can  not  be  perpetuated.  If  Wesley 
had  a  right,  a  scriptural  or  ecclesiastical  right,  to  make  a 
bishop,  then  every  clergyman  of  the  church  of  England  in 
priest's  orders  has  the  same  right,  and  hence  every  clergyman 
can  make  a  bishop  of  whomsoever  he  will.  A  clergyman  in 
London  very  lately,  the  deposed  Dr.  Dillon,  did  actually  make 
himself  a  bishop  :  the  first  instance,  as  it  were,  of  a  man's 
laying  hands  on  his  own  head.      Wesley  made  Coke  a  bishop,* 

*  The  Works  of  Bishop  Sherlock  reclaimed  Dr.  Coke  (the  Wesleyan) 
from  a  philosophical  kind  of  infidelity,  and  he  entered  into  Holy  Orders. 


262  THE  WESLBYAN  METHODISTS. 

and  yet  Coke  was  equal  with  Wesley,  so  why  could  not  Coke 
make  bishops  in  America  without  being  consecrated  in  solemn 
form,  or  letters  of  ordination,  by  Wesley?  But  let  us  only 
consider,  that  at  once  there  would  be  an  end  of  all  order  and 
decency  if  each  clergyman  could  make  a  bishop,  or  any  num- 
ber of  clergymen  combine  to  make  a  bishop,  antagonistic  to 
the  lawful  bishop  of  their  diocese.  This  consideration  is 
enough,  but  we  must  recollect  that  there  is  a  wrongness  at 
the  root  of  the  matter  :  for  the  less  is  blessed  of  the  greater, 
not  the  greater  of  the  less  ;  ^  and  Wesley  fully  allowed  that 
the  "greater"  did  exist  and  wished  Dr.  Coke  to  perpetuate 
the  threefold  order  in  America. 

Again,  what  are  we  to  think  of  his  obtaining  ordination 
for  his  preachers  from  a  Greek  bishop,  Erastus  bishop  of 
Arcadia  ni  Crete,  who,  not  knowing  one  word  of  English, 
periormed  the  Service  in  Greek,  in  a  tongue  unknown  to  the 
ordained  I  He  pressed  the  foreign  bishop  also  to  consecrate 
him,  Mr.  Wesley  himself,  that  he  might  henceforth  ordain 
whomsoever  he  would.  When  Wesley  was  charged  with 
this,  and  also  with  having  violated  the  oath  of  supremacy  by 
thus  acknowledging  the  power  of  a  foreign  prelate  in  these 
realms,  Mr.  Olivers,  with  Wesley's  privity,  wrote  a  pam- 
phlet denying  the  validity  of  the  latter  charge,  but  justifying 
the  former  on  the  ground  that  the  inward  call  of  Mr.  Wesley 
and  his  followers  being  manifest,  they  naturally  desired  the  out- 
ward call  also.  Messrs.  Jones  and  Staniforth  were  ordain- 
ed by  this  Greek  bishop  ;  but,  it  is  said,  he  felt  unwillingness 
to  consecrate  Wesley  a  bishop,  because  the  ceremony  required 
the  presence  of  two  or  three  bishops,  and  these  could  not  be 
procured.  To  crown  all,  the  man  was  considered  by  many, 
especially  by  Mr.  Toplady,  Pwomaine,  Madan,  and  others,  to 
be  an  impostor  ;  he  tried  to  introduce  himself  to  Lady  Hunt- 
ino-don,t  a  singular  circumstance  for  an  orthodox  Eastern 
bishop,  but  her  ladyship  suspected  that  he  was  not  altogether 

He  afterward  sought  to  be  made  a  bishop  in  the  Church  of  England. — 
Southey''s  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  401. 

*  See  some  excellent  remarks  in  the  works  of  Jones  of  Nayland,  vol. 
vi.  p.  147,  in  his  Life  of  Bishop  Home. 

t  Lady  Huntingdon's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.  p.  331. 


THE  VVESLEYAN  METHODISTS.  263 

what  he  appeared  or  pretended  to  be.  We  often  find  impos- 
tors bold  up  to  a  certain  point,  and  then  their  heart  fails 
them  ;  and  thus,  in  this  instance,  if  this  man  were  an  im- 
postor, he  would  think  that  while  he  might  ordain  inferior  or 
obscure  men  with  impunity,  the  consecration  of  so  celebrated 
a  man  as  Wesley  would  rouse  the  bishops  themselves  to  make 
such  inquiry  of  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  as  would  at 
once  lay  open  his  designs  in  this  country.  A  strenuous  sup- 
porter* of  Wesley  adduces  this  fact  as  an  unfortunate  in- 
stance of  fanaticism,  the  ordination  in  an  unintelligible  tongue, 
and  thus  an  unedifying  right ;  saying  of  Wesley,  "  We 
allow  that  he  was  fanatical  at  times  ;  but  this  only  amounts 
to  the  confession  that  he  had  some  taint  of  human  infirmity 
cleaving  to  a  nature  in  the  main  noble,  self-possessed,  and 
wise."  Let  us  accept  the  apology  ;  but  let  it  be  acknowledged 
that  Wesley's  plan  is  not  only  not  perfection,  but  in  no  wise 
to  be  perpetuated. 

Dr.  Johnson  thought  that  Sheridan  took  too  much  upon 
himself  in  presenting  Home,  the  author  of  '•'  Douglas,"  with 
a  gold  medal.  He  said  "  A  medal  has  no  value  but  as  a 
stamp  of  merit ;  and  was  Sheridan  to  assume  to  himself  the 
right  of  giving  that  stamp  ?  If  Sheridan  was  munificent 
enough  to  bestow  a  gold  medal  as  an  honorary  reward  of 
dramatic  excellence,  he  should  have  requested  one  of  the 
universities  to  choose  the  person  on  whom  it  should  be  con- 
ferred. Sheridan  had  no  right  to  give  a  stamp  of  merit  :  it 
was  counterfeiting  Apollo's  coiyi.'"  The  man  who  liked  not 
assumption  in  a  literary  sense,  would  neither  approve  of  it  in 
ecclesiastical  performance  ;  and  yet,  tniitatis  nominibus,  we 
see  the  coin  of  the  church  counterfeited,  not  only  by  Wesley, 
but  by  many  others. 

Error  must  have  its  beginning.  And  on  the  general 
question  of  the  origni  of  sects,  may  it  not  be  pertinently  asked  : 
Whether  Xke  first  person,  who,  after  the  lapse  of  1500  years, 

*  Rev.  0.  T.  Dobbin,  in  Kittd's  Journal  of  Sacred  Literature.  Jan.  7, 
1849.  He  also  states,  and  so  does  Alexander  Knox,  that  Wesley  too 
often  formed  a  favorable  opinion  ef  those  about  him;  and  the  conse- 
quences were  annoying,  though  the  cause  was  rather  a  virtue.  So  was 
it  with  the  amiable  Bishop  Heber. 


264  THE  WBSLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

ventured  to  call  himself  a  minister  *  without  having  been  or- 
dained by  a  bishop,  was  really  right,  and  that  the  whole 
Christian  church,  western  and  eastern,  was  from  the  days  of 
the  apostles,  and  for  fifteen  centuries  after,  entirely  wrong  and 
mistaken  as  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  words  of  Scripture 
concerning  the  Christian  ministry  ?  If  the  first  adventurer 
was  wrong,  then  all  his  successors,  be  they  five,  or  fifty,  or 
fifty  thousand,  are  wrong  also  :  but  if  right,  then  any  one  has 
Scriptural  liberty  to  form  a  sect,  and  the  only  wonder  is  that, 
instead  of  one  hundred  sects,  there  are  not  one  hundred  thou- 
sand, and  that  an  Elwall,  and  his  Elwallians  f  do  not  arise, 

*  "During  Fleetwood's  management,  the  theatre  \yas in  difficulties, 
and  bailifTs  often  in  possession.  The  hat  of  King  Richard  the  Third,  by 
being  adorned  with  jewels  of  paste,  feathers,  and  other  ornaments,  seem- 
ed, to  the  sheriffs'  officers,  a  prey  worthy  of  their  seizure ;  but  honest 
Davy,  Mr.  Garrick's  Welsh  servant,  told  them  they  did  not  know  what 
they  were  about.  '  For  look  you,'  said  Davy,  '  that  hat  belongs  to  the 
king."  The  fellows,  imagining  that  what  was  meant  of  Richard  the 
Third  was  spoken  of  George  the  Second,  resigned  their  prey,  though 
with  some  reluctance." — Memoirs  of  David  Garrick^  vol.  i.  p.  &5. 

The  above  anecdote  is  called  to  mind,  when  the  pretensions  of  dissent- 
ing ministers  are  thrust  forward.  There  is  the  counterfeit  hat  and  the 
counterfeit  king.  Thus  we  find  dissenters  calling  their  sect  (however 
insignificant)  "the  church" — their  ministers  style  themselves  "Rever- 
end," take  out  degrees  of  D.D.,  &c,  in  distant  lands,  and  array  them- 
selves in  black  coat  and  white  neckcloth,  thus  imitating  a  bona  fide  cler- 
gyman of  the  Established  Church.  Why  they  do  so?  is  a  question  to 
which  an  answer  has  never  yet  been  obtained.  Some  old  Wesleyan 
preachers  were  much  opposed  to  such  assumptions. — See  Life  of  Sam- 
uel Drew,  p.  519. 

A  rare  instance  of  a  proud  dissenter  is  given  us  in  the  biographical 
and  literary  anecdotes  of  Mr.  William  Bowyer,  in  the  person  of  a 
Charles  Jennens,  Esq.  (an  eccentric  man,  whether  he  had  been  church- 
man or  dissenter),  who,  from  his  excess  of  pomp,  acquired  the  title  of 
Solyman  the  Magnificent.  If  his  transit  was  only  from  one  street  to 
another  not  far  distant,  he  always  traveled  with  four  horses  and  some- 
times as  many  servants  behind  his  carriage.  In  his  progress  up  the 
paved  court  (to  Mr.  Bowyer's),  a  footman  usually  preceded  him,  to 
kick  oyster-shells  and  other  impedients  out  of  his  way.  His  obstinacy 
was  equal  to  his  vanity ;  for  what  he  had  once  asserted,  though  manifest- 
ly false,  he  would  always  maintain.  He  wrote  a  pamphlet  against  Dr. 
Johnson,  which  he  caused  to  be  read  aloud  to  himself  every  day  for  at 
least  a  month  after  its  publication,  while  all  the  world  was  laughing  at 
it  and  the  writer  of  it.  See  p.  442,  443. 
t  See  BoswcU's  Life,  &c.  p.  235. 


THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS.  265 

like  the  armed  ones  of  Marmion,  out  of  every  bush,  on  every 
side.  Many  sects  must  feel  annoyed,  when  going  to  the  root 
of  their  genealogical  tree,  to  find  it  so  stunted  ;  commencing 
not  with  an  apostle  certainly,  but  with  a  Mr.  Brown,  or  any 
other  gentleman  who  thought  it  necessary  to  be  violent  or 
disorderly  in  advancing  the  peaceful  kingdom  of  the  Messiah 
— and  wittily  did  Charles  Wesley,  as  reported,  reprove  his 
own  brother  : 

"  How  easily  are  bishops  made 
By  man  or  woman's  whim  ; 
Wesley  his  hands  on  Coke  hath  laid, 
But  who  laid  hands  on  him?  " 

METHODISTS. 

Dr.  Johnson  owned  that  the  Methodists  had  done  good  ; 
had  spread  religious  impressions  among  the  vulgar  part  of 
mankind  :  "  but,"  he  said,  "  they  had  great  bitterness  against 
other  Christians,  and  that  he  never  could  get  a  Methodist  to 
explain  in  what  he  excelled  others  ;  that  it  always  ended  in 
the  indispensable  necessity  of  hearing  one  of  their  preach- 
ers." 

In  his  life  of  Cheynell,  where  this  Presbyterian  boasts  of 
exercising  his  ministry  in  a  place  where  there  had  been  little 
of  the  power  of  religion  known  or  practiced,  he  says  :  "  We 
now  observe,  that  the  Methodists,  where  they  scatter  their 
opinions,  represent  themselves  as  preaching  the  gospel  to  un- 
converted nations.  And  enthusiasts  of  all  kinds  have  been 
inclined  to  disguise  their  particular  tenets  with  pompous  ap- 
pellations, and  to  imagine  themselves  the  great  instruments 
of  salvation  !  "  It  is  said,  that  the  shadow  of  learning  is  gen- 
erally, like  ghosts  of  deceased  persons,   the 

"More  fiercely  bright,  and  larger  than  the  life," 

more  so  than  sJiadotv  or  gJwst  can  warrant. 

He  thought  the  expulsion  of  six  students  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford,  who  were  Methodists,  and  would  not  desist 
from  praying  and  exhorting,  was  extremely  just  and  proper. 
"  What  have  they  to  do  at  an  university,"  he  asked  "  who 
are  not  willing  to  be  taught,   but  will  presume  to  teach  ? 

M 


266  THE  WKSLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

Where  is  religion  to  be  learnt  but  at  an  university  ?  Sir, 
they  were  examined,  and  found  to  be  mighty  ignorant  fel- 
lows." 

BoswELL. — But,  was  it  not  hard,  sir,  to  expel  them  ;  for 
I  am  told  they  were  good  beings  ?" 

Johnson. — "  I  believe  they  might  be  good  beings,  but  they 
were  not  fit  to  be  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  A  cow  is  a  very 
good  animal  in  the  field  ;   but  we  turn  her  out  of  a  garden." 

We  are  told  that  Lord  Elibank  used  to  repeat  this  as  an 
illustration  uncommonly  happy  ;  but  we  must  own,  we  can 
not  altogether  discern  its  justness  or  entire  charity.  The 
-'  good  beings"  might  only  teach  what  they  were  taught,  and 
where  then  the  harm  ?  For  all  Christians  have  liberty  to 
exhort,  comfort,  and  rebuke  ;  and  if  not  fit  to  do  these  in  the 
university,  neither,  in  Johnson's  opinion,  should  they  have 
been  fit  for  such  performance  in  the  world. 

The  Bev.  Dr.  Maxwell,  some  time  preacher  at  the  Temple, 
and  a  friend  of  Johnson's,  says,  "  He  observed,  that  the  es- 
tablished clergy  in  general  did  not  preach  plain  enough  ;  and 
that  polished  periods  and  glittering  sentences  flew  over  the 
heads  of  the  common  people  without  any  impression  on  their 
hearts.  Something  might  be  necessary,  he  observed,  to  excite 
the  afiections  of  the  common  people,  who  were  sunk  in  languor 
and  lethargy,  and  therefore  he  supposed  that  the  new  con- 
comitants of  Methodism  might  probably  produce  so  desirable 
an  cfTeet." 

On  another  occasion,  fourteen  years  after,  speaking  of  the 
religious  discipline  proper  for  unhappy  convicts,  he  said,  "  Sir, 
one  of  our  regular  clergy  will  probably  not  impress  their  minds 
sufficiently ;  they  should  be  attended  by  a  Methodist  preacher, 
or  a  Popish  priest."  It  appeared,  however,  that  the  exertions 
of  the  chaplain  of  Newgate,  the  Bev.  Mr.  Vilette,  had  been 
very  successful  during  a  period  of  eighteen  years. 

He  would  not  allow  much  merit  to  Whitfield's  oratory. 
"His  popularity,  sir,"  said  he,  -'is  chiefly  owing  to  the  pecu- 
liarity of  his  manner.  He  would  be  followed  by  crowds  were 
he  to  wear  a  night-cap  in  the  pulpit,  or  were  he  to  preach 
from  a  tree."  He  was  at  the  same  college  with  Johnson, 
v.-ho  knew  him,  as  he  once  said,  smiling,  <'  before  he  began 


THE   WESLEY  AN  METHODISTS.  2G7 

to  be  better  than  other  people  ; "  yet  he  beUeved  he  sincerely 
meant  well. 

What  effect  would  either  Wesley  or  Whitfield,  in  their 
oratory,  have  made  on  Parliament  ?  The  calm  good  sense 
of  the  former  would  probably  have  told  more  than  the  fine 
glowing  eloquence  of  the  latter.  Pvichard  Sharp  *=  says, 
"  That  the  Methodist  preacher  would  produce  no  other  effect 
in  Parliament  but  that  of  making  himself  ridiculous,  is  un- 
questionable ;  "  and  he  goes  on  to  prove  that  he  would  be  in- 
eloquent  there,  because  he  would  not  have  a  constant  regard 
to  the  quality  of  his  audience,  and  thus  would  violate  a  prime 
rule  of  rhetoric.  He  quotes  Dr.  Browne,!  as  saying,  "The 
pathetic  orator,  who  throws  a  congregation  of  enthusiasts  into 
tears  and  groans,  would  raise  affections  of  a  very  different 
nature,  should  he  attempt  to  proselyte  an  EngHsh  Parliament : " 
and  Dr.  Leland,$  "The  orator  who  throws  a  congregation  of 
enthusiasts  into  tears  and  groans,  is  in  reality,  no  orator  at  all ; 
because  he  owes  his  influence,  not  to  clearness  and  strength 
of  reasoning,  not  to  dignity  of  sentiment,  force,  or  elegance  of 
expression,  and  the  like,  but  to  senseless  exclamation,  unmean- 
ing rhapsody  ;  or  to  grimace,  to  a  sigh,  to  a  rueful  counte- 
nance :  and  if  he  would  in  vain  endeavor  to  proselyte  an 
English  Parliament,  it  is  for  this  very  reason,  because  he  is 
no  orator  ;  nor  can  any  man  without  any  of  the  apposita, 
the  rational  excellences  and  enjoying  qualities  of  speech,  be 
said  to  possess  a  degree  of  eloquence  perfect  in  its  kind." 

The  grimace  and  groans  of  the  tabernacle  have  much 
ceased  now  among  Wesleyan  Methodists,  and  will  cease 
more  and  more  in  proportion  as  the  gravity  and  soundness 
of  preachers,  educated  at  the  Theological  college  prevail. 
The  Primitive  Methodists,  or  Ranters,  will  for  a  while  keep 
up  these  things  among  the  ignorant  and  excitable  people 
who  love  the  marvelous,  at  the  same  time  that  it  alarms 
them  ;  for  there  is  a  kind  of  pleasure  in  this  indulgence,  and 
persons  who    can  be  made  to   cry  dreadfully,   will,  in   the 

*  Letters  and  Essays,  2d  edit.  p.  127.      1834. 
t  Essay  on  Ridicule. 

t  Lcland's  Dissertation  on  the  Principles  of  Human  Eloquence,  chap, 
xiv. 


268  THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

course  of  nature,  soon  experience  the  re-acting  sense  of  for- 
giveness. Such  is  self-delusion,  that  the  pleasure  here  is 
greater  in  being  cheated,  than  to  cheat. 

Boswell  told  him  that  he  had  been  at  a  meeting  of  the 
people  called  Quakers,  where  he  had  heard  a  woman  preach. 
Johnson  replied,  "Sir,  a  woman's  preaching  is  like  a  dog 
walking  on  his  hind  legs — it  is  not  done  well,  but  you  are 
surprised  to  find  it  done  at  all." 

And  not  only  surprised,  but  disgusted  :  for  what  is  more 
inconsistent  with  the  modesty  and  domestic  propriety  of 
woman,  than  the  office  of  public  preaching  or  speaking  ? 
Among  the  abuses  of  the  Corinthian  church  rebuked  by  the 
Apostle,  he  notices  the  fact  of  women  praying  and  preaching 
uncovered,  which,  he  insinuates,  places  them  rather  in  the 
condition  of  harlots.  * 

"  Madness,"  said  Johnson,  "  frequently  discovers  itself 
merely  by  unnecessary  deviation  from  the  usual  modes  of 
the  world.  My  poor  friend  Smart  showed  the  disturbance 
of  his  mind  by  falling  upon  his  knees,  and  saying  his  prayers 
in  the  street,  or  in  any  other  unusual  place.  Now,  although, 
rationally  speaking,  it  is  greater  madness  not  to  pray  at  all, 
than  to  pray  as  Smart  did,  I  am  afraid  there  are  so  many 
that  do  not  pray,  that  their  understanding  is  not  called  in 
question." 

Smart's  piety  was  always  exemplary  and  fervent.  We 
are  told  that  in  composing  his  religious  poems,  he  was  fre- 
quently so  impressed  with  sentiments  of  devotion  as  to  write 
particular  passages  on  his  knees. 

He  wrote  many  Matty  poems,  such  as  "  The  pretty  Bar- 
keeper of  the  Mitre,"  under  the  signature  of  "  Mr.  Lun,"  in 

*  He  once  said,  "  Supposing  a  wife  to  be  of  a  studious  or  argument- 
ative turn,  it  would  be  very  troublesome,  for  instance,  if  a  woman 
should  continually  dwell  upon  the  subject  of  the  Arian  hcres3^''  Sir 
Walter  Scott  advised  men  never  to  marry  religious  wives  ;  by  which  he 
probably  meant,  as  above,  controversial,  or,  it  may  be,  canting  ones  ! 
But  Hannah  More  noticed  also  the  watchwords  of  ladies  not  religious, 
saying,  "Observe  only,  whether,  after  you  have  heard  a  lady  begin  to 
speak  of  the  clergy,  under  the  appellation  of  the  parsons,  you  do  not  in 
a  short  time  hear  Christianity  spoken  of  as  a  particular  system^''''  &c. 
This  was  about  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution,  1798. 


THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS.  269 

the  Student ;   and  his  lines  on  the  sudden  death  of  a  clergy- 
man (one  of  his  serious  poems),  thus  end  : 

"  Better  than  what  the  peneil's  daub  can  give, 
Better  than  all  that  Phidias  ever  wrought, 
Is  this — that  what  he  taught  shall  ever  live, 
And  what  he  lived  for  ever  shall  be  taught. '^ 

In  common  with  literary  men,  he  had  much  shyness  of 
manner.  It  is  related  of  him,  that  having  undertaken  to 
introduce  his  wife  to  Lord  Darlington,  he  had  no  sooner  men- 
tioned her  name  to  his  lordship,  than  he  retreated  suddenly, 
as  if  stricken  with  a  panic,  from  the  room,  and  from  the 
house,  leaving  her  to  follow,  overwhelmed  with  confusion. 

Johnson  evidently  had  him  in  view,  when  at  another  time, 
he  said,  "  Many  a  man  is  mad  in  certain  instances,  and 
goes  through  life  without  having  it  perceived.  For  example, 
a  madness  has  seized  a  person,  of  supposing  himself  obliged 
literally  to  pray  continually  ;  had  the  madness  turned  the 
opposite  way,  and  the  person  thought  it  a  crime  ever  to  pray, 
it  might  not  improbably  have  continued  unobserved."  Even 
in  these  remarks,  the  religious  integrity  of  Johnson's  mind 
is  seen. 

Let  us  close  these  remarks  on  Methodism  with  a  quota- 
tion from  a  book  *  written  by  a  man  of  sense  and  of  great  dis- 
cernment. He  is  speaking  of  humility,  and  the  false  humilities, 
and  lias  just  told  us  that  the  most  common  of  the  spurious 
humilities  is  that  by  which  a  general  language  of  self-dispar- 
agement is  substituted  for  a  distinct  discernment,  and  specific 
acknowledgment  of  our  real  faults  ;  that  the  humble  indi- 
vidual of  this  class  will  declare  himself  to  be  very  incontest- 
ably  a  miserable  sinner,  but  at  the  same  time  there  is  no 
particular  fault  or  error  that  can  be  imputed  to  him  from 
which  he  will  not  find  himself  to  be  happily  exempt,  when 
he  goes  on  to  say,  f  "  Of  all  false  humilities,  the  most  false 
is  to  be  found  in  that  meeting  of  extremes,  wherein  humility 
is  corrupted  into  pride.  John  Wesley,  when  he  was  desir- 
ous to  fortify  his  followers   against  ridicule,  taught  them  to 

*  Notes  from  Life,  in  Six  Essays,  by  Henry  Taylor,  3d.  edit.  p.  50. 
Published  by  Murray, 
t  P.  54,  55. 


270  THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS. 

court  it.  "  God  forbid,"  said  he,  "  that  we  should  not  be 
the  laughing-stock  of  mankind."  But  it  is  through  pride, 
and  not  in  humility,  that  any  man  will  desire  to  be  a  laugh- 
ing-stock. And  though  it  may  seem  at  first  sight  that  he 
'has  attained  to  an  independence  of  mankind  when  he  can 
brave  their  laughter,  yet  this  is  a  fallacious  appearance  ;  it 
will  be  found  that  so  far  as  his  humility  was  corrupted,  his 
independence  was  undermined  ;  and  while  courting  the  ridi- 
cule of  the  world,  he  is  in  reality  courting  the  admiration 
and  applause  of  his  party  or  sect,  or  fearing  their  rebuke. 
This  is  the  dependence  into  which  he  has  fallen,  and  there 
is  probably  no  slavery  of  the  heart  which  is  comparable  to 
that  of  sectarian  pride.  Moreover,  Mr.  Wesley's  followers 
doubtless  deemed  that  the  laughers  were  in  danger  of  hell- 
fire.  Where  then  was  their  charity  when  they  desired  to 
be  laughed  at  by  all  mankind?  Or  if  (without  desiring  it) 
they  deemed  mankind,  themselves  only  excepted,  to  be  in  so 
reprobate  a  state  that  the  religious  must  needs  be  a  laugh- 
ing-stock— was  this  their  humility  ?  I  wish  to  speak  of  Mr. 
Wesley  with  respect,  not  to  say  reverence  ;  but  in  this  in- 
stance I  think  that  his  appeal  was  made  to  a  temper  of 
mind  in  his  followers  which  was  not  purely  Christian.  It  is 
not  the  meek  who  will  throw  out  this  sort  of  challenge  and 
defiance  ;  and  it  is  pride  and  not  humility  M^hich  we  shall 
find  to  lie  at  the  bottom  of  any  such  ostentatious  self-abase- 
ment, 

"  For  pride, 
Which  is  the  devil's  toasting  fork,  doth  toast 
Him  brownest  that  his  whiteness  vaunt eth  most." 

There  is  certainly  something  very  unpleasing,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  in  the  ideas  of  the  inferior  class  of  Methodists. 
Their  notions,  we  may  observe  (though  this  is  not  the  place 
to  enlarge  upon  them),  that  they  are  instantly  saved,  and  of 
their  perfection,  are  as  inconsistent  as  they  are  absurd  ;  for 
what  advantage  is  there  in  their  belief  of  sudden  salvation, 
and  of  perfection,  when  on  the  very  next  day  to  their  pro- 
fession of  such  blessings,  they  may  not  be  in  possession  of 
either  ?      No,  the  language  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the 


THE  WESLEYAN  METHODISTS.  271 

general  tone  of  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  must 
be  the  language  and  feeling  of  every  Christian  man  unto  his 
dying  day.  He  is  a  sinner  unto  the  last,  looking  only  for 
salvation  to  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  remark 
of  a  French  critic  ^  on  the  Greek  statuaries  is  singular  and 
delicate.  "  They  never,"  says  he,  "  presumed  to  make  use 
of  the  perfect  tense,  when  the  artist  set  his  name  to  the 
statue.  It  was  always  enoLTjae,  not  TreTTOiTjUT].  He  never 
ventured  to  affirm  that  his  work  was  perfect.''  The  ap- 
plication is  obvious  ;  let  us  acknowledge  its  lesson  in  our- 
selves. 

"  A  man,"  observes  the  pious  Cecil,  "  who  thinks  himself 
to  have  attained  Christian  perfection,  in  the  sense  in  which 
it  i)as  been  insisted  on  by  some  persons"  (in  evident  allusion 
to  Methodists),  "  either  deceives  himself  by  calling  sin  in- 
firmity— or  the  demon  of  pride  overcomes  the  demon  of 
lust." 

How  admirably  and  charitably  does  Southey  conclude  his 
"  Life  of  Wesley,"  with  the  hope  that  Wesley ans  may  be 
led  to  act  in  closest  union  with  the  church  I  and  he  says, 
"  The  obstacles  to  this  are  surely  not  insuperable,  perhaps  not 
so  difficult  as  they  may  appear."  Let  us  believe  and  hope 
that  this  union  may  be  at  no  distant  time  thoroughly  effected 
and  thus  one  cause  of  scandal  against  Christianity  be  removed. 

*  Andrewes's  Anecdotes,  p.  60. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
ROMAN    CATHOLICS. 

Dr.  Johnson's  principles  and  feelings  were  ever  ranged 
on  the  side  of  authority,  antiquity,  and  establishment.  We 
must  not  be  surprised,  therefore,  to  find  him  more  favorably 
inclined  toward  the  Roman  Catholic  than  the  Presbyterian 
church  :  but  we  may  always  be  gratified  in  knowing  that  he 
rejected  error  under  whatever  countenance  of  authority  it 
might  be  broached,  and  in  common  with  all  great  minds 
loved  truth  in  its  solidity  and  simplicity.  Devoutness  of 
heart,  constant  mindfulness  of  the  presence  of  God,  reliance 
on  the  work  of  Christ,  prayer  for  the  guiding  and  sustaining 
influences  of  the  Holy  spirit — these  formed  his  religion,  and 
he  sought  more  the  practice  of  these,  than  the  mere  excite- 
ment of  listening  to  extemporaneous  preachers,  or  any  en- 
deavor to  invent  and  broach  new  systems  of  doctrine. 

There  is  a  conversation  of  Johnson's  recorded,  which  shows 
to  us  the  chastened  sentiments  of  a  really  God-fearing  and 
God- worshiping  mind.  It  took  place  at  Oxford  between  him- 
self and  Dr.  Adams,  the  Master  of  Pembroke  College.  John- 
son said,  "  I  know  of  no  good  prayers  but  those  in  the  '  Book 
of  Common  Prayer.'  "  Dr.  Adams  observed,  in  a  very  earn- 
est manner,  "  I  wish,  sir,  you  would  compose  some  family 
prayers."  Johnson  replied,  "  I  will  not  compose  prayers  for 
you,  sir,  because  you  can  do  it  for  yourself  Bat  I  have 
thought  of  getting  together  all  the  books  of  prayers  which  I 
could,  selecting  those  which  should  appear  to  me  the  best, 
putting  out  some,  inserting  others,  adding  some  prayers  of  my 
own,  and  perfixing  a  discourse  on  prayer."  "  We  all  now 
gathered  about  him,"  relates  Boswell,  "  and  tAvo  or  three  of 
us  at  a  time  joined  in  pressing  him  to  execute  this  plan.  He 
seemed  to  be  a  little  displeased  at  the  manner  of  our  impor- 
tunity, and  in  great  agitation  call  out,  '  Do  twt  talk  thus  of 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  273 

what  is  so  awful.  I  know  not  what  time  God  will  allow 
me  in  this  world.  There  are  many  things  which  I  wish  to 
do.'  Some  persisted,  and  Dr.  Adams  said,  '  I  never  was 
more  serious  about  any  thing  in  my  life.'  Johnson  exclaimed, 
'  Let  vie  alone — let  me  alone — /  am  overpoicered'  And 
then  he  put  his  hands  before  his  face,  and  reclined  for  some 
time  upon  the  table."  We  have  now  his  Meditations  and 
Prayers,  which  are  very  valuable,  and  wholly  his  own,  as 
arranged  by  Dr.  Strahan,  although  we  may  believe  that  this 
gentleman  had  no  license  for  their  publication  from  Dr.  John- 
son himself. 

It  must  be  conceded,  that  devoutness  is  a  characteristic 
more  of  the  Pwoman  Catholic  than  the  Protestant  church. 
We  see  Roman  Catholic  chapels  open  throughout  the  day, 
and  nearly  at  all  hours  persons  are  entering  them,  and,  quietly 
kneeling  down,  while  deep  silence  reigns  throughout  the  place, 
they  offer  up  their  prayers.  Whatever  be  the  nature  of  those 
prayers,  the  spirit  of  devotion  is  there.  And  while  this  con- 
tinual refreshment  of  the  soul — for  such,  if  sincere,  it  must 
needs  be  to  a  Roman  Catholic — is  being  experienced,  there 
is  nothing  of  a  religious  kind  going  on  in  Protestant  churches, 
or  Protestant  houses.  The  door  of  their  sanctuary  is  closed 
from  Sunday  to  Sunday,  and  if  laid  open,  no  one  enters  it  for 
the  purpose  of  unseen  and  silent  prayer  ;  no  little  company, 
relying  on  the  gracious  promise  of  Christ's  presence,  is  there ; 
and  nothing  induces  our  people  to  gather  together  in  the 
temple,  unless  preaching  be  announced.  There  is  a  principle 
prevailing  in  the  bosoms  of  our  Roman  Catholic  brethren, 
which  we  need  to  cherish  in  our  own  ;  and  for  which  we  who 
boast  of  a  purer  faith  and  more  primitive  practice  ought  to  be 
more  eminent.  We  are  all  looking  out  for  gifts  rather  than 
for  giving,  and  thus  we  may  be  too  lamentably  liable  to  foster 
feelings  of  conceit  and  selfishness  rather  than  those  attendant 
on  humble-mindedness  and  holiness  of  heart.  Let  us  show 
forth  Dr.  Johnson  as  a  firm,  undeviating  Church  of  England 
man,  yet  without  uncharitableness  toward  his  Roman  Cath- 
olic brethren  :  and  because  of  his  liberality  and  charity,  often, 
as  in  the  case  of  Grotius  and  others,  misrepresented  as  lean- 
ing too  much  toward  Popery  in  its  entireness. 


274  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

Boswell  once  said  to  him,  ''  So,  sir,  you  are  no  great  enemy 
to  the  Roman  CathoHc  religion  ?  " 

Johnson. — "  No  more,  sir,  than  to  the  Presbyterian  re- 
ligion." 

Boswell. — "  You  are  joking." 

Johnson. — "  No,  sir,  I  really  think  so.  Nay,  sir,  of  the 
two,  I  prefer  the  Popish  !"  And  he  then  entered  into  some 
reasons  of  which  we  have  before  treated.  In  the  above  re- 
mark, we  see  nothing  more  than  a  little  preference  given  to 
the  one  more  than  the  other  :  but  he  disliked  them  both. 
The  feeling  which  we  have  above  noted,  together  with  his 
political  principles,  would  necessarily  lead  him  to  give  some 
preference  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  and  yet,  if  we  in 
any  way  measure  his  dislike  of  it  by  his  dislike  of  the  Presb}^- 
terian  manner,  we  must  see  that  he  disapproved  it  greatly, 
although  for  very  different  reasons. 

Of  conversion  from  the  Roman  Catholic  church  he  said,  as 
reported  by  Sir  William  Scott,  "  A  man  who  is  converted 
from  Protestantism  to  Popery,  may  be  sincere  :  he  parts  with 
nothing  :  he  is  only  superadding  to  what  he  already  had. 
But  a  convert  from  Popery  to  Protestantism  gives  up  so  much 
of  what  he  has  held  as  sacred  as  any  thing  that  he  retains — 
there  is  so  much  laceratio7i  of  mind  in  such  a  conversion, 
that  it  can  hardly  be  sincere  and  lasting."  Boswell,  the 
Presbyterian,  adds,  "  The  truth  of  this  reflection  may  be  con- 
firmed by  many  and  eminent  instances,  some  of  which  w'Al 
occur  to  most  of  my  readers." 

Croker  expresses  himself  as  not  aware  of  such  instances, 
and  thinks  that  Boswell  alluded  to  Gibbon,  whose  conversion 
from  Protestantism  to  Popery,  and  back  again,  and  which 
ended  in  infidelity,  is  not  a  case  in  point.  A  direct  case,  in 
our  days,  has  occurred  in  that  of  Blanco  White  :  and  he  also 
states  that  many  hundreds,  on  giving  up  Popery,  fall  into  in- 
fidelity— they  must  believe  all  or  none — for,  probably,  they 
have  been  accustomed  to  believe  so  much,  that  they  think 
our  religion  too  meagre  for  notice. 

Bishop  Elrington  expressed  his  su prise,  that  Johnson 
should  have  forgotten  Latimer,  Ridley,  Hooper,  and  all  those 
of   all   nations,    who   have   renounced    Popery.      To   many 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  275 

zealous  Protestants  this  remark  of  Dr.  Johnson's  will  be  an 
exceedingly  startling  one.  And  yet  we  can,  on  deliberation, 
well  discern  a  goodness  in  his  meaning.  Infidelity  was 
always  the  horror  of  his  mind  :  he  could  not  sit  in  company 
with  an  infidel.  His  idea  is,  Better  believe  too  much  than 
too  little  ;  and  he  fears,  in  many  minds,  the  eHect  of  a 
descent  from  the  greater  to  the  lesser,  lest  the  man  should 
find  himself  rolled  impetuously  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill, 
when  he  should  have  walked  calmly  to  his  residence  on  the 
middle  of  it.  We  must  remember,  too,  that  a  Roman 
Catholic  parts  from  what  he  has  been  taught  to  regard  as 
sacred,  though  we  regard  it  as  akin  to  profane  :  and  while  we 
may  say  that  we  lead  him  to  other  doctrines  which  may 
better  fill  up  his  mind,  yet  the  shock  is  in  some  degree  or 
another  inevitable,  and  the  multitude  can  not  bear  such  a 
shock,  although  it  be  from  mere  superstitious  ideas  and  ob- 
servances. Yet  no  man  can  read  the  two  articles  folio winqf 
after  the  Preface  to  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer — no  man 
can  look  into  the  addeiida  of  creed  and  ceremony  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  church — and  not  pronounce  restoration  to 
be  absolutely  desirable  :  and  therefore,  the  Protestant  is  not 
responsible  for  some  or  many  untoward  effects  accruing  from 
a  lessening  of  hold  on  Popish  superstitions  and  practices,  and 
it  is  his  duty  to  win  minds  from  these,  whatever  he  may  think 
of  the  feasibility  of  holding  a  true  saving  belief  in  conjunction 
with  them,  on  all  essential  points  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Dr.  Johnson's  observation  should  certainly  excite  to  great 
care  and  preparation  in  the  matter  of  attempting  and  eflect^ 
ing  conversions  from  the  Roman  Catholic  to  the  Protestant 
religion,  and  thus  regarded  as  an  exhortation,  it  may  be  of 
eminent  advantage,  however  we  might  dislike  it  if  viewed  in 
the  light  of  daunting  or  preventing  men  in  a  work  for  which 
the  Church  of  England  is  so  well  adapted,  so  well  accoutred, 
and  offering  such  a  substantial  settledness  in  a  home  as  fully 
sacred  as  it  is  really  primitive. 

Let  us  proceed  to  a  sort  of  examination  of  Johnson  by 
Boswell,  on  certain  Roman  Catholic  points  of  belief  Ho 
asked,  "  What  do  you  think,  sir,  of  Purgatory,  as  believed  by 
the  Roman  Catholics  ?" 


276  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

Johnson. — "  Why,  sir,  it  is  a  very  harmless  doctrine. 
They  are  of  opinion  that  the  generahty  of  mankind  are 
neither  so  obstinately  wicked  as  to  deserve  everlasting  punish- 
ment, nor  so  good  as  to  merit  being  admitted  into  the  society 
of  blessed  spirits  :  and  therefore,  that  God  is  graciously 
pleased  to  allow  of  a  middle  state,  where  they  may  be  purified 
by  certain  degrees  of  suffering.  You  see,  sir,  there  is  nothing 
unreasonable  in  this." 

Johnson  states  this  doctrine  fairly,  and  according  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  belief:  at  least,  just  as  it  is  laid  down  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  George  Hay.=^  And  the  celebrated  Dr.  Milner, 
after  quoting  the  texts  of  Luke  xii.  o'j  ;  Matt.  xii.  32  ; 
Luke  xvi.  22  ;  1  Cor.  iii.  13,  15  ;  1  Pet.  iii.  19,  &c.,  on 
which  the  doctrine  is  founded,  and  the  analogies  by  which  it 
is  inferred,  gives  very  Protestant  authorities  for  the  practice 
of  praying  for  the  dead,  and  among  others,  "  the  religious  Dr. 
Johnson,  whose  published  Meditations  prove,  that  he  con- 
stantly prayed  for  his  deceased  wife."t 

Dr.  Milner  also  states,  that  the  famous  Dr.  Priestley,  be- 
ing on  his  death-bed,  called  for  Simpson's  work  on  the  Dura- 
tion of  Future  Punishments,  which  he  recommended  in  these 
terms,  "  It  contains  my  sentiments  ;  we  shall  all  meet  finally  : 
we  only  require  difierent  degrees  of  discipline,  suited  to  our 
different  tempers,  to  prepare  us  for  final  happiness. "$ 

But  this  is  a  presumptuous  notion,  unwarranted  by  God's 
word.  Those  who  heard  our  Lord  speak  (Matt.  xxv.  41) 
would,  considering  the  known  opinion  of  the  Jews  and  an- 
cients, certainly  receive  the  word  "everlasting"  in  its  unre- 
stricted sense  ;  and  it  has  been  pithily  observed,  if  there  is  9io 
everlasting  punishment,  neither  is  thei'e  everlasting  reward 
or  liappiness  ;  for  the  same  word  is  used  to  denote  the  dura- 
tion of  either.      At  the  same  time,  we  might  hold  the  doctrine 

^  Hay's  "  Sincere  Christian  instructed  in  the  Faith  of  Christ,  from 
the  Written  Word."     Richardson,  Derby.     Vol.  ii.  p.  115. 

t  "The  End  of  Religious  Controversy,"  by  the  Rev.  John  Milner, 
D.D.  F.S.A.  p.  416.  Dr.  Johnson  prayed  for  his  deceased  wife  only 
after  a  conditional  manner,  and  with  extreme  reverence  and  modesty ; 
different  from  the  prayer  of  St.  Augustine  for  his  pious  mother  Monica. 

X  Is  not  Dr.  M.  wrong  in  applying  this,  which  relates  rather  to  the 
doctrine  of  universal  redemption  than  to  purgatory  ? 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  277 

of  both  eternal  and  limited  punishments  without  much  harm, 
inasmuch  as  we  know,  that  as  regards  human  laws,  certainty 
more  than  severity  of  punishment  influences  mankind,  and 
many  may  be  led  to  commit  lesser  ofienses  under  the  idea 
that  God  will  not  assign  them  to  eternal  perdition  for  such, 
while  they  might  be  induced  to  avoid  such  offenses  under  the 
belief  that  they  would  certainly  be  punished  painfully,  though 
not  eternally,  for  their  committal,  in  the  next  hfe.  Yet,  let 
us  allow  that  the  reasonable  necessity  for  this  doctrine  of 
Purgatory  is  much  weakened,  when  we  consider  that  there 
are  differerent  degrees=^  of  reward  and  glory  in  heaven,  so 
that  the  loss  of  any  degree  of  final  happiness  ought  to  act  as 
a  powerful  persuasive  with  men  to  abstain  from  every  kind 
of  offense,  and  to  seek  the  aid  of  the  grace  of  God  for  such 
entire  abstinence. 

Dr.  Johnson  appears  to  have  had  no  doubt  of  a  middle 
state :  and  no  man  can  deny  the  existence  of  paradise  as  in- 
ferior to  the  highest  heaven. f      He  only  doubted  whether  he 

*  This  doctrine  is  well  argued  by  Dr.  Green,  Bishop  of  Lin- 
coln, in  a  tract  (The  Four  Last  Things)  published  by  the  Christian 
Knowledsie  Society. 

■?  Dr.  Field,  in  his  support  of  Calvin  against  the  imputations  of  Bel- 
larmine,  tells  us,  that  "  the  custom  of  remembering  the  departed, 
naming  their  names  at  the  Holy  Table,  &c.  was  a  most  ancient  and 
godly  custom ;  neither  is  it  in  any  way  disliked  by  us.  And  surely  it 
appears,  that  this  was  the  cause  that  Aerius  was  condemned  of  hereti- 
cal rashness,  in  that  he  dui'st  condemn  this  laudable  and  ancient  cus- 
tom of  the  commemoration  of  the  dead.  In  this  sort  they  did  most  re- 
ligiously observe  and  keep,  at  the  Lox-d's  Table,  the  commemoration 
of  all  the  patriarchs,  prophets,  apostles,  evangelists,  martyrs,  and  con- 
fessors, yea  of  Mary  the  mother  of  our  Lord,  to  whom  it  can  not  be 
conceived,  that  by  prayer  they  did  xvish  deliverance  out  of  purgatory, 
since  no  man  ever  thought  them  to  be  there;  but  if  they  wished  any 
thing,  it  was  the  deliverance  from  the  power  of  death,  which  as  yet 
tyrannizeth  over  one  part  of  them ;  the  speedy  destroying  of  the  last 
enemy,  which  is  death,  the  hastening  of  their  resurrection,  and  jovful 
public  acquittal  of  them  in  that  great  day  wherein  they  shall  stand  to 
be  judged  before  the  Judge  of  the  quick  and  dead.  This  was  the  prac- 
tice of  the  whole  church,  and  this  the  meaning  of  their  commemorations 
and  prayers,  which  w^as  good,  and  no  way  to  be  disliked."  He  states 
further,  that  "  men  out  of  their  own  private  errors  and  fancies  used  such 
prayers  for  the  dead,  as  the  Romanists  themselves  dare  not  justify." 
(Dr.  Field's  Book  of  the  Church,  book  iii.  chap.  xvii.  Edit.  1C06. 


273  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

might  be  allowed  to  pray  for  a  deceased  person  :  and  he  only- 
prayed  thus  conditionally,  not  positively,  as  Dr.  Milner  would 
have  us  believe  that  he  did.  In  a  prayer  for  his  departed 
wife,  we  have  his  two  opinions  blended  :  "  And,  O  Lord,  so 
far  as  it  may  he  laivful  in  me,  I  commend  to  thy  Fatherly 
goodness  the  soul  of  my  departed  wife  :  beseeching  thee  to 
grant  her  whatever  is  best  in  her  present  state,  and  finally 
to  receive  her  to  eternal  happiness. '"  Who  can  object  to 
this,  when  we  know  that  the  resurrection  and  the  judgment 
must  take  place  previous  to  the  final  destination  of  a  soul ; 
and  no  soul  would  be  brought  out  of  hell  or  heaven  to  be 
judged  ?  Surely,  therefore,  there  must  be  a  middle  state  in 
which  the  soul  is  placed  after  its  flight  from  this  world,  and 
previous  to  its  union  with  the  body  at  the  resurrection,  and 
in  the  judgment.  It  would  be  a  blessed  privilege,  especially 
in  certain  cases,  if  we  might  be  permitted  to  follow  the  dead 
with  our  prayers  ;  but  still,  we  dare  not  trust  that  such  per- 
mission is  granted,  for,  excepting  in  the  Apocrypha,  we  have 
no  clear  intimation  in  the  sacred  Scriptures  of  its  allowance. 

Croker  observes,  that  sometimes  Dr.  Johnson  prays,  that 
the  Almighty  may  "  have  had  mercy''  on  the  departed,  as  if 
he  believed  the  sentence  to  have  been  already  pronounced. 
Yes,  He  may  have  had  mercy;  but  this  decides  not  the  sen- 
tence in  its  fullness  :  that  irrevocable  sentence  which  is  to  be 
delivered  on  the  Judgment  Day. 

"But  then,  sir,  continued  Boswell,  "their  masses  for  the 
dead  ?"  Johnson. — "  Why,  sir,  if  it  be  once  established  that 
there  are  souls  in  Purgatory,  it  is  as  proper  to  pray  for  them^ 
as  for  our  brethren  of  mankind  who  are  yet  in  this  life." 

Boswell. — "The  idolatry  of  the  Mass." 

Johnson. — "  Sir,  there  is  no  idolatry  in  the  Mass.  They 
believe  God  to  be  there,  and  they  adore  Him." 

They  believe  a  piece  of  bread  to  be  God,  and  adoring  God, 
and  not  a  piece  of  bread,  they  are  not  guilty  of  idolatry. 
Were  the  piece  of  bread  only  representative  of  God,  and  did 

also  the  Appendix  to  Book  iil.)  His  remarks  on  this  subject,  which  he 
regards  as  Protestant  doctrine  and  generally  allowed,  may  not  be  agree- 
able to  the  tone  of  much  of  the  religion  of  the  pre.sent  day,  but  they 
fully  bear  out  Dr.  Johnson. 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  279 

they  adore  it,  they  would  be  guilty  of  idolatry.  This  seems 
to  be  Dr.  Johnson's  excuse  for  them  ;  an  excuse  valid  enough 
for  escape  from  the  charge,  founded  on  the  marvelous  mon- 
strosity of  their  belief.  On  this  ground,  the  Heathens  who 
Avorship  and  pray  to  images  as  gods,  are  cleared  from  the 
charge  of  idolatry.  In  both  Catholic  and  Heathen  the  wor- 
ship may  be  consistent  with  the  belief;  but  the  belief  is  mon- 
strous. Let  us  mark  how  these  erroneous  doctrines  and 
practices  all  consistently  proceed  one  out  of  the  other.  If 
there  be  Purgatory,  then  prayers  for  the  dead  ;  if  individual 
prayers  and  sacrifice,  then  united  and  public  prayer  and  sacri- 
fice also. 

The  above  words  of  Dr.  Johnson  must  not  be  read  as  an 
approval  of  the  Mass,  and  as  though  he  thought  no  idolatry 
was  involved  in  its  adoration.  No,  he  merely  states  what 
might  be  the  consistent  practice  springing  out  of  a  certain 
belief.  He  himself  did  not  believe  God  to  be  there  :  for  he 
did  not  hold  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation.  "  If,"  he 
once  said,  after  quoting  Tillotson,  "  God  had  never  spoken 
figuratively,  we  might  hold  that  he  speaks  literally,  when  He 
says,  '  This  is  my  Body.'  "  Boswell  pressed  him  by  saying, 
"  But  what  do  you  say,  sir,  to  the  ancient  and  continued 
tradition  of  the  church  upon  this  point  ?"  Johxsox. — 
'=  Tradition,  sir,  has  no  place  where  the  Scriptures  are  plain; 
and  tradition  can  not  persuade  a  man  into  a  helief  of  tran- 
substantiation.  Able  men,  indeed,  have  said  they  believed 
it."  On  another  occasion  when,  as  Boswell  tells  us,  he  was 
in  a  frame  "calm,  gentle,  wise,  holy,"  he  spoke  against  the 
belief  of  transubstantiation.  This  is  necessary  to  be  observ- 
ed, lest  we  rashly  accuse  him  of  showing  too  much  favor  to 
Boman  Catholic  doctrines,  whereas  he  only  seeks  to  excuse 
their  consistency,  not  their  creed. 

"The  worship  of  saints?"  further  exclaimed  Boswell. 
JoHNSox. — "  Sir,  they  do  not  worship  saints  :  they  invoke 
them  :  they  only  ask  their  prayers."  But  he  was  opposed 
to  the  invocation  of  saints.  Toplady,  speaking  of  Romanists, 
asked,  "  Does  not  their  invocation  of  saints  suppose  omnipres- 
ence in  the  saints  ?"  "  No,  sir,  it  supposes  only  pluri-pres- 
ence ;   and   when    spirits    are   divested    of  matter,   it    seems 


280  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

probable  that  they  should  see  with  more  extent  than  when 
ill  an  embodied  state.  There  is  therefore  no  approach  to  an 
invasion  of  any  of  the  Divine  attributes,  in  the  invocation  of 
saints.  But  I  think  it  is  will-icorship  and  'presumiition. 
I  see  no  command  for  it,  arid  therefore  think  -it  safer  7iot  to 
practice  it^ 

There  seems  to  be  an  over  refinement  in  the  distinction 
between  omnipresence  and  pluri-presence.  We  can  only  un- 
derstand it  in  this  way  ;  namely,  that  the  departed  saints 
are  allowed  to  hear  the  prayers  of  all  those  whom  they  knew 
on  earth ;  a  privilege  which  they  did  not  possess  on  earth, 
because  their  bodies  confined  them  to  one  spot.  Thus,  when 
in  the  flesh,  only  those  friends  who  could  be  about  them  and 
see  them,  could  say,  "  Pray  for  me  :"  but  now,  having  cast 
ofi'  the  body,  the  spirit  could  have  greater  freedom,  and  be 
enabled  to  see  and  hear  those  who  called  and  besought  them 
from  a  distance,  as  well  as  those  who  were  nigh.  Still  only 
the  voice  of  friends  would  reach  them  :  for  the  doctrine  would 
be  held  under  the  idea  of  an  earthly  taint  of  saintship  still 
clinofing  to  them,  and  with  the  belief  that  God  would  gra- 
ciously  allow  a  sainted  spirit  on  the  earth  to  call  to  its  sainted 
sister  or  brother  in  heaven,  and  thus  effectually  realize  the 
communion  of  saints — of  all  saints  that  were  joined  on  earth 
of  the  dead  and  of  the  living.  This  would  be  the  idea  of 
pluri-presence  :  and  then  we  extend  it  further,  and  suppose 
all  the  church  in  Heaven  to  be  mindful  of  the  whole  church 
on  earth  with  permission  to  hear  and  urge  the  requests  of  in- 
dividuals of  the  church  militant,  and  then  we  arrive  at  the 
idea  of  omnipresence. 

"  As  to  the  invocation  of  saints,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  at  an- 
other time,  "  though  I  do  not  think  it  authorized,  it  appears 
to  me,  that  '  the  communion  of  saints'  in  the  Creed  means 
the  communion  with  the  saints  in  heaven,  as  connected  with 
'  the  holy  Catholic  Church.'  Yes,  they  may  be  united  with 
us,  and  we  shall  be  united  with  them.  They  may  be  united 
with,  and  regardful  of  us  (Rev.  vi.  9—11),  and  we  know 
that  we,  if  faithful  and  holy,  are  to  be  hereafter  with  '  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect.'  " 

But  the  communion  of  saints  is  a  verv  different  matter 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  281 

from  the  invocation  of  saints.  We  may  believe  that  the 
saints  can  pray  for  us,*  and  with  a  purer  and  stronger  power 
of  prayer,  in  their  disembodied  state,  although  we  dare  not 
pray  to  them.  They  could  pray  for  us  when  on  the  earth — 
why  not  when  in  Paradise  ?  Their  prayers  then  for  us  would 
not  hinder  Christ's  gracious  intercession  for  our  souls,  any 
more  than  their  prayers  on  earth  did  ;  and,  "  Brethren,  pray 
for  us,"  is  a  grand  exhortation  of  St.  Paul.  Our  Reformers 
held  this  belief,!  and  it  is  a  comfortable  one,  in  no  way  de- 

*  Dr.  Field  supports  this  view  in  some  very  remarkable  passages 
(book  iii.  chap.  31),  fully  coinciding  with  Bishop  Ken's  sentiments. 
He  is  treating  on  the  Heresies  of  Vigilantius,  saying,  '"  The  next  heresy 
that  we  are  supposed  to  fall  into,  is  that  of  Vigilantius.  The  opinions 
imputed  to  him  by  Jerome,  and  disliked,  are  these  :  The  first,  that 
the  saints  departed  pray  not  for  the  living,  &c."  Dr.  Field  answers, 
"  For  the  opinions  wherewith  Jerome  chargeth  him,  this  we  briefly 
answer.  First,  if  he  absolutely  denied  that  the  saints  departed  do  pray 
for  us,  as  it  seemeth  he  did  by  Jerome's  reprehension,  ive  think  he 
erred.  For  ive  hold  they  do  pray  in  genere.'^  See  also  Appendix  to 
book  iii.     Answer  to  Brereley's  Objections. 

t  Bishop  Ridley  wrote  thus  to  a  fellow-martyr,  "  Brother  Bradford, 
as  long  as  I  shall  understand  thou  art  in  thy  journey,  by  God's  grace 
I  shall  call  upon  our  heavenly  Father,  for  Christ's  sake,  to  let  thee 
safely  home  :  and  then,  good  brother,  speak  you,  and  pray  for  the  rem- 
nant which  are  to  sufter  for  Christ's  sake  ;  according  to  that  thou  shalt 
then  know  more  clearly." — Letters  of  the  Martyrs.  Edited  by  the 
Rev.  Edward  Bickersteth. 

The  sainted  Bishop  Ken,  one  of  the  greatest  glories  of  our  church, 
and  worthy  to  be  reckoned  among  the  luminaries  of  the  Church  Catho- 
lic— in  his  "Exposition  of  the  Church  Catechism,"  which  received  the 
imprimatur  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  chaplain  in  the  year 
1665,  says,  "I  believe,  O  most  holy  Jesu,  that  thy  saints  here  below, 
have  communion  with  thy  saints  above  (Heb.  xii.  22)  ;  they  praying  for 
us  in  heaven,  we  are  on  earth  celebrating  their  memorials,  rejoicing  at 
their  bliss,  giving  Thee  thanks  for  their  labor  of  love,  and  imitating 
their  examples — for  which  all  love,  all  glory  be  to  Thee."  These 
words  are  copied  as  they  stand  in  the  original  edition ;  but  probably 
the  word  ''  are'^  should  be  "  here." 

Bishop  Heber's  beautiful  letter  of  condolence  to  Miss  Stone,  in  '•  Nar- 
rative of  a  Journey,"  &c.  vol.  iii.  p.  309,  is  well  known.  He  says, 
"  That  the  spirits  in  Paradise  pray  for  those  whom  they  have  left  be- 
hind. I  can  not  doubt,  since  I  can  not  suppose  that  they  cease  to  love 
us  there  ;  and  your  dear  brother  is  thus  still  employed  in  your  service 
and  still  recommending  you  to  the  throne  of  mercy,  to  the  all-sulficient 
and  promised  help  of  that  God  who  is  the  Father  of  the  fatherless,  and 


282  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

pendent  on  the  truth  or  error  of  the  doctrine  of  the  invo 
cation  of  saints.  They  may  be  enabled  to  pray  not  only  for 
friends  left  behind,  but  for  the  whole  world  of  men,  and  in  doing 
this  in  Paradise,  they  would  do  no  more  than  what  they  were 
allowed  to  do  when  mortals  on  the  earth.  They  would  still 
pray,  not  in  their  own  strength,  but  through  the  "  one  Medi- 
ator between  God  and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus." 

"I  am  talking  all  this  time,"  said  Johnson,  "of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Church  of  Rome.  I  grant  you  that,  in  j^rac- 
tice,  Purgatory  is  made  a  lucrative  imposition,  and  that  the 
people  do  become  idolatrous  as  they  recommend  themselves 
to  the  tutelary  protection  of  particular  saints." 

The  vast  and  ridiculous  extent  to  which  this  tutelary 
guardianship  is  carried,  is  readily  discerned  by  all  who  know 
any  thing  of  the  practices  of  Romanists.  And  yet,  in  a 
work  highly  esteemed  among  them,  first  published  by  their 
eminent  divine  Gother,  and  republished  by  Bishop  Challoner, 
these  two  remarkable  sentences  occur  :  "  Cursed  is  he  that 
believes  the  saints  in  heaven  to  be  his  redeemers,  that  prays 
to  them  as  such,  or  that  gives  God's  honor  to  them,  or  to  any 
creature  whatsoever.  Amen."  "  Cursed  is  every  goddess 
worshiper,  that  believes  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary  to  be  any 
more  than  a  creature  ;  that  worships  her  or  puts  his  trust  in 
her  more  than  in  God ;  that  believes  her  above  her  Son,  or 
that  she*  can  in  any  thing  command  Him.  Amen."  Let 
us  bind  our  Roman  Catholic  brethren  to  this,  and  there  is 
an  end  of  their  idolatry.  But  we  know  the  sentiments  and 
practice  of  the  great  mass  of  them  to  be  otherwise  ;^  and, 
indeed,  their  divines  must  be  aware  of  it,  or  these  prohibitions 
would  not  have  been  issued. 

of  that  blessed  Son  whe  hath  assured  us  that  they  who  mourn  shall  be 
comforted." 

We  find,  also,  that  truly  evangelical  minister,  the  late  Rev.  Hugh 
Stowell,  state  it  as  his  hope  that  he  may  be  permitted  to  pray  for  his 
children  with  more  power  than  when  on  earth  ;  and,  if  so,  promising 
them  his  prayers. 

Of  the  communion  of  the  earthly  and  heavenly  church,  see  1  Cor. 
xii.  12,  13;  Ephes.  i.  10;  Heb.  xii.  23;  Rev.  vi.  9;  xii.  11.  See 
also  Dr.  Field's  Third  Book  on  the  church,  chapters  17  and  31. 

*  See  Tyler's  "What  is  Romanism?"  being  Tracts  published  by 
the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge. 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  283 

We  come  nearest  to  the  invocation  of  saints  or  angels, 
collectively,  when  we  chant  our  favorite  doxology, 

"Praise  God,  from  whom  all  blessings  flow; 
Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below ; 
Praise  Him,  above,  ye  heavenly  host. 
Praise  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost." 

But  here  there  is  no  abuse  of  doctrine — no  trusting  in  angels 
or  saints  for  blessing  or  guardianship  from  them  ;  it  is  mere 
acknowledgment  of  the  oneness  of  the  church  in  glory  and  in 
the  church  in  weakness,  and  with  this  acknowledgment  an 
invitation. 

"  Confession  ?"  persevered  Boswell.  Johnson. — "  Why, 
I  don't  know  but  that  is  a  good  thing.  The  Scripture  says, 
'  Confess  your  faults  one  to  another  ;'  and  the  priests  confess 
as  well  as  the  laity.  Then  it  must  be  considered  that  their 
absolution  is  only  upon  repentance,  and  often  upon  penance 
also.  You  think  your  sins  may  be  forgiven  without  penance, 
upon  repentance  alone." 

This  is  rightly  stated,  for  the  best  Roman  Catholic 
authorities  tell  us,  that  confession  of  sins  is  necessary  for  ob- 
taining absolution  ;  without  it,  the  grace  of  the  sacrament  of 
penance  will  not  be  bestowed.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
confession  of  sins  is  a  Scriptural  doctrine,  and  that  its  practice 
is  incumbent  on  every  Christian.  But  the  Roman  Catholic 
church  by  its  custom  utterly  deprives  such  a  practice  of  its 
very  essence.  For  what  should  confession  be  ?  Open  and 
honest,  and  before  all  men.  How  is  it  with  Romanists  ? 
Dark  and  concealed,  and  only  to  a  priest,  who  is  bound  not 
to  divulge  it.  What  is  the  object  of  confession,  and  what 
would  be  its  result  ?  Its  object  is  the  exposure  of  the  heart, 
especially  to  those  who  have  most  interest  in  knowing  your 
heart ;  and  the  result  would  be,  that  no  concealment  of  crime 
would  ever  be  kept  up  ;  and  hence,  when  men  felt  they  must 
confess,  crime  would  almost  cease.  What  use  to  cheat  a 
man  in  a  bill  if  you  must  go  and  tell  him  of  it  the  next  week, 
and  make  reparation  ?  Tell  hijn  ;  not  tell  it  only  to  another 
man  who  you  know  must  not  tell  it  to  another,  and  then 
practice  a  secret   penance   of  some  kind,  thus  giving  false 


284  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

satisfaction  to  your  own  deceived  heart,  and  doing  no  good  to 
your  defrauded  neighbor.  In  short,  confession  is  another 
term  for  an  opened  heart ;  but,  depend  upon  it,  true  and 
honest  confession  of  sins  is  the  hardest  task  that  ever  was,  or 
ever  can  be  imposed  on  the  human  heart.  It  is  one  of  the 
main  things  needed  to  regenerate  the  world  (it  is  a  fruit  of 
the  spiritual  mind),  but  it  is  the  last  that  the  tongue  of  man 
will  duly  perform. 

Confession  of  sins  should  be  made  to  the  clergy,  it  is  true ; 
but  not  to  them  only.  It  should  always  be  made  to  them, 
because  they  are  the  instructors  of  those  that  are  gone  out 
of  the  way,  the  healers  of  the  broken-hearted,  the  physicians 
of  the  soul.  How  can  they  prescribe  so  well,  as  when  they 
know  the  especial  complaint  under  which  divers  persons  are 
respectively  laboring,  unless  they  know  the  sin  which  doth  so 
easily  beset  them  ?  See  how  you  tell  your  bodily  physician 
all  your  bodily  ailments,  how  minute  and  careful  you  are  ; 
and  if  you  miss  acquainting  him  with  any  particular  circum- 
stance, his  efforts  may  not  meet  your  case.  So  should  you 
be  careful  with  your  spiritual  physician,  but  not  with  him 
only,  but  with  others.  For  if  you  trust  a  secret  to  him  which 
you  wish  others  not  to  know,  you  place  yourself  in  his  power  ; 
and  although  he  may  never  desire  to  make  use  of  this  power 
to  your  disadvantage  in  any  way,  yet,  as  a  general  rule,  con- 
fession to  the  clergy  only  would  be  found  to  be  inconvenient, 
as  well  as  missing  its  essential  mark;  and,  indeed,  no  con- 
fession should  be  made  to  the  clergy  without  giving  full  per- 
mission to  them  to  divulge  it  to  some  others  ;  and  a  main 
object  of  your  going  to  a  minister  for  confession  should  be, 
that  he  might,  at  your  earnest  desire,  communicate  it  to  the 
persons  whom  you  had  injured  in  any  way,  provided  no 
serious  hurt  would  accrue  to  others  from  such  confession. 

Some  kinds  of  Christians,  the  Wesleyans  for  instance,  ap- 
proach near  to  the  system  of  the  confessional.  They  confess 
their  sins  in  their  band-meetings,  but  then  these  are  private, 
only  entered  by  means  of  a  ticket,  and  perhaps  the  confessions 
are  not  divulged,  especially  to  those  Avho  have  most  interest 
in  knowing  them.  A  Wesleyan  may  exhibit  sorrow  for  sin, 
he  may  say  that  he  has  been  sorely  tempted,  and  he  may 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  285 

seek  the  aid  of  the  prayers  of  his  brethren  ;  but  will  he  say, 
I  have  stolen  a  pair  of  stockings  off  such  a  man's  garden- 
hedge,  and  I  must  tell  you  and  him  of  it ;  I  have  entertained 
such  and  such  a  spite  against  such  and  such  a  person,  and  1 
must  out  with  it ;  I  have  sold  such  a  one  an  inferior  article 
at  too  high  a  price,  and  I  must  go  and  tell  him — will  he  do 
this  ?  for  without  this  freeness  and  openness,  let  him  not 
flatter  himself  that  there  can  be  confession  :  he  is  in  no  wise 
better  than  a  Romanist.  It  has  been  observed,  that  too 
often  a  Wesleyan  confession  or  statement  of  experience  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  a  confession  of  virtues — that  is,  a 
confession  of  former  sins  and  later  virtues  ;  in  this  latter 
light  the  man  wishing  to  be  taken  at  his  own  word  of  him- 
self, when  his  actions  ought  to  speak  for  him,  not  his  tongue. 
There  is  an  excellent  paper  in  the  Rambler  (No.  28),* 
which  ought  to  be  read  by  every  one  who  desires  to  know 
himself  before  he  seeks  to  propagate  his  own  reputation,  and 
to  find  how  men  more  grossly  practice  imposture  on  them- 
selves than  on  others.  But  real  confession  of  sins,  as  they 
should  be  Scripturally  confessed,  is  one  of  the  best  cures  for 
the  pride,  the  boasting,  the  imposture  of  man. 

Speaking  of  Wesleyans,  we  may  note  Wesley's  large  and 
charitable  mind.  Though  so  much  opposed  to  Popery,  he 
could  say,  "  I  firmly  believe  that  many  members  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  have  been  holy  men,  and  that  many  are  so 

*  How  excellent  is  this  sentence:  "There  are  men,"  writes  Dr. 
Johnson,  "  who  always  confound  the  praise  of  goodness  with  the  prac- 
tice, and  who  believe  themselves  mild  and  moderate,  charitable  and 
faithful,  because  they  have  exerted  their  eloquence  in  commendation  of 
mildness,  fidelity,  and  other  virtues.  This  is  an  error  almost  universal 
among  those  that  converse  much  with  disputants,  with  such  whose  fear 
or  interest  disposes  them  to  a  seeming  reverence  for  any  declaration, 
however  enthusiastic,  and  submission  to  any  boast,  however  arrogant. 
Having  none  to  recall  their  attention  to  their  lives,  they  rate  themselves 
by  the  goodyiess  of  their  opinions,  and  forget  hoiv  much  more  easily  men 
may  show  their  virtue  in  their  talk  than  in  their  actions.''' 

It  is  well  recorded  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  that  he  for  a  long  time 
concealed  the  consecration  of  himself  to  the  stricter  duties  of  religion, 
lest,  by  some  flagitious  and  shameful  action,  he  should  bring  piety 
into  disgrace.  This  is  related  by  Dr.  Johnson,  in  No.  14  of  the 
Rambler. 


286  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

now."  And  he  says  in  another  place,  "  Several  of  them 
have  attained  to  as  high  a  pitch  of  sanctity  as  human  natm'e 
is  capable  of  arriving  at." 

Mrs.  Fletcher,  wife  of  the  eminent  Rev.  John  Fletcher  of 
Madeley,  says,=^  "  Reading  the  life  of  Ignatius  Loyola  (the 
founder  of  the  Jesuits),  and  especially  what  pains  he  took, 
and  what  labor  he  went  through  to  gain  souls,  I  could  not 
but  be  struck  at  the  glaring  difference  between  him  and  me. 
One  day,  having  taken  a  step  he  believed  to  be  his  duty,  but 
which  caused  him  both  pain  and  ignominy,  and  being  rebuked 
by  a  friend,  he  replied,  '  I  should  not  object  to  traverse  all 
the  streets  of  Paris  barefoot,  with  horns  on  my  head,  and 
clothed  in  the  most  ridiculous  habit,  could  it  but  gain  one 
soul  to  God.'  The  conviction,"  she  continues,  "  immediately 
struck  me,  that  all  I  wanted  was  to  be  filled  with  the  love 
of  God,  and  that  would  produce  every  effect  in  its  proper 
order.  Lord,  let  my  incessant  cry  be  for  this  I  Oh  give  me 
this  most  excellent  gift  of  charity  I" 

This  excellent  woman,  and  we  love  her  for  her  love,  not- 
withstanding all  her  dreams  and  extravagances,  had  a  corre- 
spondence with  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  in  which  also  she 
exhibits  much  loving  comprehension  of  mind.  She  says, 
with  remarkable  concentration  of  light  and  love — for  many, 
as  Wesley  said,  have  much  love  and  but  little  light — she 
says,  "  With  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  Calvin,  which  repre- 
sents the  love  of  God  in  a  very  wrong  light,  I  therein  agree 
with  you,  and  mourn  that  so  many  good  men  do  hold  it. 
Had  not  Christ  died  for  all,  the  apostles  could  not  have  been 
commanded  '  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.'  "  She 
reminds  him  how  sweetly  hereafter,  they  may  forget  the 
names  of  Romanist  and  Protestant  :  she  commends  the  Life 
of  M.  de  Rentz,  as  a  book  she  much  loves  :  and  writes  to 
the  priest,  "  I  can  embrace  you  as  a  brother  in  the  Lord, 
and  regard  you  as  such." 

Of  this  kind  of  generous  disposition,  was  the  pious  Hannah 
More.  She  writes  f  to  one  of  her  sisters,  of  Dr.  Johnson, 
*'  He  reproved  me  with  pretended  sharpness  for  reading,  '  Les 

*  Her  Life,  p.  247. 

t  Vol.  i.  p.  211  of  her  Life. 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  287 

Peiisees  de  Pascal,'  *  or  any  of  the  Port  Royal  authors, 
alleging,  that  as  a  good  Protestant,  I  ought  to  abstain  from 
books  written  by  Catholics.  I  was  beginning  to  stand  upon 
my  defense,  when  he  took  me  with  both  hands,  and  with 
a  tear  running  down  his  cheeks,  '  Child,'  said  he,  with 
the  most  affecting  earnestness,  '  I  am  heartily  glad  that 
you  read  pious  books  by  whomsoever  they  may  be  writ- 
ten.'" 

We  may  readily  see,  that  Dr.  Johnson's  rebuke  was  pre' 
tended,  for  his  manner  was  often  playful ;  and  she  evidently 
adopts  his  exhortation.  Johnson  really  had  large  views  of 
religion,  for  w^e  have  it  recorded  by  Boswell,  that  once  he  and 
Johnson  talked  of  the  Fvoman  Catholic  religion,  and  how  little 
dillerence  there  was  in  essential  matters  between  it  and 
Church  of  England,  or  Presbyterianism.  Johnson  said,  •'  True, 
sir,  all  denomimations  of  Christians  have  really  little  differ- 
ence in  point  of  doctrine,  though  they  may  differ  widely  in 
external  forms.  There  is  a  prodigious  difference  between  the 
external  form  of  one  of  your  Presbyterian  churches  in  Scot- 
land, and  the  church  in  Italy ;  yet  the  doctrine  taught  is 
essentially  the  same."  Boswell  lets  this  pass  without  obser- 
vation or  comment,  so  may  we.  We  may,  how^ever,  notice 
that  it  was  manner  in  prayer  and  preaching  that  contribu- 
ted a  good  deal  to  prevent  Johnson  from  entering  a  Presby- 

*  Hannah  3[ore  was  also  an  ardent  admirer  of  Fcnelon,  of  whom 
v.'B  may  relate  this  anecdote  :  Lord  Peterborough,  after  a  visit  paid  to 
Fenelon,  Archbishop  of  Cambray,  said  to  Pope,  '"  Fenelon  is  a  man 
that  was  cast  in  a  particular  mould,  that  was  never  made  use  of  for 
any  body  else.  He's  a  delicious  creature.  But  I  was  forced  to  get 
from  him  as  soon  as  I  possibly  could,  for  else  he  would  have  made  me 
p'loits.'' — Warton^s  Essay  on  Pope. 

Of  our  Warburton,  much  the  same  observation,  though  in  a  rather 
different  sense,  was  made.  When  Lord-Chancellor  Yorke  had  obtain- 
ed great  reputation  in  public  life,  and  the  most  brilliant  prospects  were 
before  him,  thus  he  addressed  the  great  scholar  and  divine  :  "  I  en- 
deavor to  convince  myself  it  is  dangerous  to  converse  with  you,  for  you 
show  me  so  much  more  happiness  in  the  quiet  pursuits  of  knowledge 
and  enjoyments  of  friendship  than  is  to  be  found  in  lucre  or  ambition, 
that  I  go  back  into  the  world  with  regret,  where  few  things  are  to  be 
attained  without  more  agitation,  both  of  reason  and  the  passions,  than 
either  moderate  parts  or  a  benevolent  mind  can  support."* — Lord 
Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Chancellors^  vol.  v.  p.  39U. 


288  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

terian  place  of  worship  in  Scotland  ;  he  read  the  books  of 
Scotch  divines,  and  approved  them. 

At  another  time,  he  repeated  his  observation,  that  the 
differences  among  Christians  are  really  of  no  consequence. 
"  For  instance,"  he  said,  "  if  a  Protestant  objects  to  a  Papist, 
'  You  worship  images ; '  the  Papist  can  answer,  '  I  do  not 
insist  on  your  doing  it ;  you  may  be  a  very  good  Papist  with- 
out it ;  I  do  it  only  as  a  help  to  my  devotion.'  "  This  is 
very  liberal,  but  still  a  Protestant  may  say,  I  not  only  wish 
to  avoid  worshiping  of  images  myself,  but  I  go  further,  and 
desire  to  discountenance  any  society  in  which  it  is  done,  and 
thus  protect  others  as  well  as  clear  myself  It  is  but  fair  to 
mention,  that  nothing  do  the  Roman  Catholics  repel  with 
greater  indignation  than  the  idea  that  any  worship  or  adora- 
tion is  paid  by  them  to  images,  so  that  any  one  can  love, 
adore,  and  trust  in  an  image  as  his  God.  They  abhor  and 
detest  such  a  thought,  and  bitterly  complain  of  the  injustice 
of  the  accusation.  ^ 

CONVENTS  AND  MONASTERIES. 

Of  convents  and  monasteries  he  spoke  much.  "  If  I  were 
to  visit  Italy,"  he  said,  "  my  curiosity  would  be  more  attract- 
ed by  convents  than  by  palaces  ;  though  I  am  afraid  that  I 
should  find  expectation  in  both  places  equally  disappointed, 
and  life  in  both  places  supported  with  impatience  and  quitted 
with  reluctance."  In  this  remark  we  observe  two  prevailing 
habits  of  his  own  mind — his  religion,  preferring  convents  to 
palaces  ;  his  fear  of  death,  expecting  to  find  it  reign  in  relig- 
ious and  irreligious  people  alike.  We  may  regret  that  a  visit 
to  Italy,  projected  at  two  periods  of  his  life,  did  not  take 
place. 

He  said,  "  If  convents  should  be  allowed  at  all,  they  should 
only  be  retreats  for  persons  unable  to  serve  the  pubhc,  or  who 
have  served  it.  It  is  our  first  duty  to  serve  society,  this 
service  the  fruit  of  our  rehgion  ;  and,  after  we  have  done 
that,  we  may  attend  wholly  to  the  salvation  of  our  own  souls. 

*  See  Dr.  Hay's  Sincere  Christian,  p.  231. 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  289 

A  youthful  passion  for  abstracted  devotion  should  not  be  en- 
couraged." We  may  rightly  ask  :  If  all  good  people  are  to 
retire  from  the  world,  what  would  the  world  become  ?  Good 
people  are  the  good  leaven  of  society  that  maintain  its  integ- 
rity. 

"  There  are  no  anchorites  in  heaven,"  says  Bishop  Patrick  ; 
"  why  on  earth  ?" 

One  day,  a  very  fine  one,  he  was  walking  among  the  ruins 
of  St.  Andrew's,  and  took  off  his  hat  while  he  was  upon  any 
part  of  the  ground  where  the  Cathedral  had  stood.  He  talk- 
ed of  Kncx  and  his  mob,  and  he  spoke  of  retirement  from  the 
world.  He  thought  a  man  might  retire  when  he  had  done 
his  duty  to  society  ;  but  love  of  his  neighbor  should  cause  him 
to  bear  a  part  in  active  life.  "  Those  who  are  exceedingly 
scrupulous  (which  I  do  not  approve,  for  I  am  no  friend  to 
scruples),  and  find  their  scrupulosity  invincible,  or  those  who 
can  not  resist  temptations,  and  find  they  make  themselves 
worse  by  being  in  the  world,  M'ithout  making  it  better,  may 
retire."  His  enthusiasm  must  have  been  rapidly  excited  by 
the  scene  around  him,  when  he  farther  exclaimed,  "  I  never 
read  of  a  hermit,  but  in  imagination  I  kiss  his  feet ;  never  of 
a  monastery,  but  I  could  fall  on  my  knees  and  kiss  the  pave- 
ment. But  I  think  putting  young  people  there,  who  know 
nothing  of  life,  nothing  of  retirement,  is  dangerous  and  wick- 
ed." And  by  a  subsequent  sentence,  he  at  once  explains 
what  he  meant  before,  in  saying  that  it  is  our  first  duty  to 
serve  society,  &c.,  a  saying  which  has  been  much  misrepre- 
sented, as  though  we  might  serve  the  world  for  a  time,  and 
become  religious  in  old  age  only.  "  It  is  a  saying,"  he  says, 
'=  as  old  as  Hesiod  :  "Epya  veu)v,  (3ovAai  re  [iegcjv,  evyai  re 
yepovrwy*  That  is  a  very  noble  line  :  7iot  tlw.t  young  men 
should  7iot  pray,  or  old  tnen  not  give  counsel,  but  that  every 

*  Boswell  translates  this  line  by  a  couplet : 

"  Let  youth  in  deeds,  in  counsel  man  engage  : 
Prayer  is  the  proper  duty  of  old  age."  ^ 


1  Perhaps  the  mesaiing  is — The  achievements  of  the  young,  the  counsels  of  the  mid- 
dle-ao-ed,  and  the  blessings  (is  not  iiyi]  a  prayer  for  a  blessing  ?)  of  the  aged  are  best 

N 


290  ROxMAN  CATHOLICS. 

season  of  life  has  its  proper  duties.  I  have  thought  of  retir- 
ing and  have  talked  of  it  to  a  friend  :  but  I  find  my  vocation 
is  rather  to  active  life."  The  very  threat  of  his  M'ithdrawal 
from  society  forms  a  powerful  argument  against  any  institution 
that  vi^ould  have  allured  so  great  a  benefactor  of  mankind 
to  take  such  a  step  ;  though  the  love  of  retirement,  as  he  tells 
us  in  the  Rambler,^  "has,  in  all  ages,  adhered  closely  to 
those  minds  which  have  been  most  enlarged  by  knowledge, 
or  elevated  by  genius."  No  one  could  give  better  advice  than 
his  hermit  gives  to  Obidah,  the  son  of  Abensena.  f 

This  entry  appears  in  his  Diary,  when  traveling  in  France  ; 
•'  Monk  not  necessarily  a  priest.  Benedictines  rise  at  four, 
are  at  church  an  hour  and  a  half;  at  church  again  half  an 
hour  before,  half  an  hour  after  dinner  ;  and  again  from  half 
an  hour  after  seven  to  eight.  They  may  sleep  eight  hours. 
Bodily  labor  wanted  in  monasteries.  The  poor  taken  into 
hospitals  and  miserably  kept.  Monks  in  the  convent,  fifteen, 
accounted  poor."  It  will  be  remembered,  how  he  tells  us 
ill  the  "  Rambler"!  that  monks  are  not  necessarily  poor  ; 
they  are  certainly  free  from  destitution,  and  the  reverence 
paid  to  the  sanctity  of  their  character  amply  compensates  all 
other  distinctions  which  might  have  been  won  in  the  worldly 
life. 

Mrs.  Piozzi  records,  "  When  we  were  at  Rouen,  he  took 
a  great  fancy  to  the  Abbe  Roflette,  with  them  he  conversed 
about  the  destruction  of  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits,  and  con- 
demned it  loudly,  as  a  blow  to  the  general  power  of  the 
church,  and  likely  to  be  followed  with  many  and  dangerous 
innovations,  which  might  at  length  become  fatal  to  religion 
itself,  and  shake  even  the  foundation  of  Christianity  ;  and 
we  are  further  told,  that  Dr.  Johnson  pronounced  a  long 
eulogium  upon  Milton,  with  so  much  ardor,  eloquence,  and 
ingenuity,  that  the  Abbe  rose  from  his  seat  and  embraced 
him. 

Yet  neither  Johnson  nor  the  Abbe  could  have,  in  any 
wise,  liked  Milton's  religious  views.  Johnson  tells  us,  how 
"  he  had  adopted  the  puritanical  savageness  of  manners,"  and 

*  Rambler,  No.  7.  t  Ibid.  No.  65 

t  Ibid.  No.  203. 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  291 

"  such  is  his  mahgnity,  that  hell  grows  darker  at  his  frown." 
He  belonged  to  no  church,  had  no  stated  hour  of  prayer,  in 
public  or  private.  At  first  he  is  said  to  have  been  Calvin- 
istic  ;  and  when  he  began  to  hate  the  Presbyterians,  he 
became  Arminian.  The  Papists,  because  appealing  to  other 
testimonies  than  the  Scripture,  in  his  opinion,  ought  not  to 
be  permitted  the  liberty  of  either  public  or  private  worship  : 
for  though  they  plead  conscience,  "  yet,"  he  said,  "  we  have 
no  warrant  to  regard  conscience  which  is  not  grounded  in 
Scripture."  We  are  reminded,  by  this  enmity  to  Papists, 
of  Prynne,  the  regicide,  who  actually  made  it  a  subject  of 
serious  accusation  against  the  government,  that  he,  when 
removed  as  a  prisoner  from  Carnarvon  Castle,  was  com- 
pelled to  set  sail  in  a  ship  on  board  of  which  was  a  Roman 
Catholic  I 

Great  must  have  been  their  victory  over  prejudice,  great 
their  admiration  of  poetry's  grandest  hero,  when  the  one 
could  give,  and  the  other  applaud,  so  exalted  a  character  and 
description  of  an  ecclesiastical  enemy.  Milton,  however,  as 
Johnson  has  well  stated,  was  not  without  full  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  the  profoundest  veneration  for 
the  holy  Scriptures,  but  the  strange  matter  is,  that  the 
author  of  '•'  Paradise  Lost"  should  not  have  been  a  worshiper 
in  the  Cathedral  (and  he  appears  to  have  had  a  poetical 
feeling  in  favor  of  Cathedrals  in  earlier  life),  rather  than  the 
upholder  of  conventicle,  and  that  his  political  predilections 
should  not  have  been  of  the  Stuart  rather  than  the  Crom- 
wellian  class. 

Talking  again  of  religious  orders,  he  said,  "  It  is  as  unrea- 
sonable for  a  man  to  go  into  a  Carthusian  convent  for  fear 
of  being  immoral,  as  for  a  man  to  cut  off  his  hands  for  fear 
he  should  steal.  A  man  inay  do  this,'"  he  says,  '<  yet  he 
may  all  his  life  be  a  thief  in  his  heart.  Their  silence,  too," 
he  continued,  "  is  absurd.  We  read  in  the  Gospel  of  the 
Apostles  being  sent  to  preach,  but  not  to  hold  their  tongues. 
All  severity  that  does  not  tend  to  increase  good  or  prevent 
evil,  is  idle."  In  these  remarks  his  strong  common  sense 
irresistibly  breaks  forth,  and  convinces. 

He  went  on,  "  I  said  to  the  Lady  Abbess  of  a  convent, 


292  ROMAN  CATHOLICS. 

'  Madam,  you  are  here,  not  for  the  love  of  virtue,  but  the 
fear  of  vice.'  She  said,  she  should  remember  this  as  long  as 
she  lived."  Bos  well  thought  it  hard  of  him  to  give  her  this 
view  of  her  situation,  when  she  could  not  help  it. 

In  the  "Rambler"  he  discourses  wisely:*  "Austerity  is 
the  proper  antidote  to  indulgence  ;  the  diseases  of  mind,  as 
well  as  body,  are  cured  by  contraries,  and  to  contraries 
we  should  readily  have  recourse,  if  we  dreaded  guilt  as 
we  dread  pain.  The  completion  and  sum  of  repent- 
ance is  a  change  of  life.  That  sorrow  which  dictates  no 
caution,  that  fear  which  does  not  quicken  our  escape,  that 
austerity  ivhicli  fails  to  rectify  our  affectio7is^  are  vain  and 
unavailing." 

Indeed,  often  an  ascetic  life  may  only  tend  to  foster  spirit- 
ual pride  ;  ay,  as  much,  or  more,  than  platform  applause,  or 
congregational  approval.  In  a  book  composed  to  exalt  the 
merit  of  one  set  of  monks,  St.  Peter  is  supposed  to  ask  of  St. 
Michael,  who  it  is  that  knocks  at  the  door;  the  answer  is, 
"  A  Carmelite."  "  A  Carmelite  I"  repeats  St.  Peter,  peev- 
ishly ;  "  a  Carmelite  I  I  think  we  have  none  at  the  gate  of 
heaven  but  Carmelites,  from  morning  to  night.  Well,  he 
must  stay  ;  I  shall  not  open  the  gate  till  there  is  a  dozen 
together  of  them."! 

But  monks,  like  other  men,  must  succumb  to  the  common 
fate,  and  give  in  their  strict  account.  In  the  celebrated 
"  Daunce  of  Machabree,  made  by  Dan  John  Lydgate,  Monke 

*  That  admirable  paper,  No.  110. 

t  Christini  of  Sweden  is  reported  to  have  been  never  better  pleased 
with  a  story,  than  that  of  a  Norinon  cui-e's  artifice  to  save  the  reputa- 
tion of  his  seigneur,  who  had  the  misfortune  to  be  broken  alive  on  the 
wheel,  at  the   "  Greve,"   for  two  or  three  robberies,  and  a  murder. 

"We  pray  thee,  O  Lord  (said  the  ecclesiastic),  for  the  soul  of 

seigneur  of  this  parish,  who  has  lately  died  of  his  wounds  at  Paris." — 
Andrewes^  p.  17. 

In  the  cruel  persecution  of  the  Protestants  at  Aix  (1614),  the  Jesuits 
promised  an  unhappy  victim,  overcome  by  the  entreaties  of  his  wife  and 
family,  that  if  he  would  I'ecant,  his  life  should  bo  spared.  The  man 
complied,  and  yet  they  led  him  forth  to  death.  On  the  scaffold  he  up- 
braided them  with  this  breach  of  faith ;  but  they  told  him,  that  by  the 
promise  made  him  of  life,  they  did  not  mean  this  life,  but  that  to  come. 
— Gcntlcman''s  Magazine,  vol.  xvii.  p.  396. 


ROMAN  CATHOLICS.  293 

of  St.  Edmund's  Bury,"  when  Death  comes,  in  due  turn,  to 
take  away  the  monk,  we  read  : 

"  Death  speaketh  to  the  Monke. 

'  Sir  Monke  also  with  your  black  habite, 
Ye  may  no  longer  here  hold  sojoure, 
There  is  nothing  here  that  may  you  respite, 
Agein  my  might  you  for  to  do  succour. 
Ye  mot  accompt  touching  your  labour, 
How  you  have  spend  it  in  dede,  word  and  thought, 
To  earth  and  ashes  turneth  every  floure, 
The  life  of  man  is  but  a  thing  of  nought.' 

'•  The  Monke  maketh  answer. 

'I  had  lever  in  the  cloyster  be, 
At  my  book  and  study  my  service, 
Which  is  a  place  contemplatif  to  see  : 
But  I  have  spent  my  life  in  merry  wise, 
Like  as  a  fool  dissolute  and  nice, 
God  of  his  mercy  grant  me  repentance, 
By  chere  outward  hard  is  to  devise. 
All  be  not  merry  which  that  man  see  daunce.' " 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 
xMONASTICAL    LIFE. 

The  eremitical  life  lays  claim  to  great  antiquity,  and  its 
followers  were  looked  upon  always  as  the  most  sainted  sons 
of  religion.  St.  Chrysostom  tells  us  that  the  first  institutor 
of  monachism  was  Samuel,  in  the  Old  Testament  ;  and  St. 
Jerome,  in  his  epistle  to  Rusticus,  says,  "The  chief  inventors 
and  improvers  of  monachism  were  the  sons  of  the  prophets,  in 
the  Old  Testament,  who  built  huts  near  the  river  Jordon,  and, 
quitting  throngs  and  cities,  lived  upon  barley  cakes  and  wild 
herbs."  And  the  same  St.  Jerome  (a  favorite  Father  with 
Presbyterians),  writes,  in  his  epistle  to  Paulinus,  "We  have 
the  Apostles,  Antony,  Hilarion,  and  Macarius,  for  chiefs  of 
our  institute."  Elijah  and  Elisha  are  also  claimed  as  princes 
of  the  monastical  life.  So  are  the  sons  of  Rechab,  the  Es- 
senes,  &:c.  And  the  MS.  in  the  Cotton  Library  thus  con- 
tinues :  "  Having  seen  how  it  was  represented  under  the 
Fathers  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  remains  that  we  show  how 
it  was  continued  under  those  of  the  New.  John  the  Baptist, 
who  was  between  both  the  Testaments,  flying  *  to  the  desert 
in  his  tender  years,  was  the  first  institutor  of  monastical  life 
under  the  New  Testament.  Nay,  Christ  himself  was,  prop- 
erly, the  institutor,  when  he  ordered  his  disciples  to  sell  all, 
to  leave  all  things,  and  to  follow  him  ;  and  after  his  Ascen- 
sion the  faithful  sold  all  they  had,  laid  the  price  at  the  feet 
of  the  Apostles,  and  lived  in  common,  under  their  care  and 
direction,  possessing  nothing  they  could  call  their  own. 

"After  the  martyrdom  of  the  Apostles,  many  falling  off 
from  their  primitive  fervor,  began  to  seek  the  things  of  this 
world,  and  to  possess  them  as  their  own,  not  in  common,  as 
before  ;  but  very  many  holy  Fathers  retaining  that  Apostoli- 
cal fervor,  and  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  continued  to  live 
A.  *  Yet  we  have  no  evidence  of  this. 


MONASTIC  LIFE.  295 

under  the  direction  of  one  in  community,  adding  many  sub- 
limer  things  to  what  had  been  practiced  under  the  Apostles." 

Eusebius,  in  the  second  book  of  his  Church  History,  tells 
us  how,  by  the  example  of  St.  Mark  and  the  influence  of  his 
vast  number  of  converts  in  Egypt,  the  holy  monastical  in- 
stitute spread  over  all  the  world.  Much  more  on  this  mutter 
may  be  seen  in  Cassian,  Sozomen,  St.  JeromC;  and  Epipha- 
nius. 

*'  The  most  renowned  among  these  ancient  monks,"  con- 
tinues the  MS.,  "  were  Antony,  Hilarion,  the  two  Macarii, 
Pachomius,  Aurelius,  John  the  Father  of  3000  monks,  Se- 
rapion  the  Father  of  10,000,  Dioseorus  the  Father  of  100, 
Julian  the  Father  of  10,000,  Amos  of  3000,  Theonas  of 
3000,  Paul  of  500,  Basil,  Fructuosus,  Ferreolus,  Egyptius, 
Isidore,  Aurelian,  John  Cassian,  Jerome,  and  many  more 
holy  Fathers.  At  length  succeeded  St.  Benedict,  a  strenu- 
ous hearer  and  fulfiller  of  the  Evangelical  precept,  who 
shined  out  like  a  bright  heavenly  star ;  and  he,  about  the 
year  of  our  our  Lord  -516,  was  a  resolute  champion  in  Christ's 
warfare,  in  a  monastery  on  Mount  Cassino,  and  writ  a  com- 
mendable rule,  approved  of  by  the  universal  church,  as  Pope 
Innocent  II.  testifies."  Previous  to  this  date,  at  least  nine 
eminent  monks  had  written  monastical  rules. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzen  writes  thus  of  the  excessive  auster- 
ity of  the  monks  of  Pontus  ;  "  Some  torment  themselves  Avith 
chains  of  iron  ;  others,  shut  up  like  wild  beasts,  in  streight 
houses,  see  no  man :  they  fast  and  keep  silence  twenty  whole 
days.  O  Christ,"  he  adds,  "  be  favorable  to  those  souls, 
who  I  confess  are  pious,  but  not  discreet  enough." 

In  England  the  original  and  advancement  of  Christianity 
and  monachism  was  nearly  contemporary.  Some  of  the 
Druids,  who  were  priests  of  that  pagan  religion,  became 
monks  ;  and  their  former  life  in  its  severity  of  discipline,  in- 
clined them  to  the  monastic  form  of  Christianity. 

The  monks  of  Glastonbury  have  endeavored  to  maintain 

the  credit  of  a  report,  that  in  the  year  31   after  the  Passion 

of  our  Lord,  twelve  of  St.  Philip  the  Apostle's  disciples  (chief 

of  whom  Avas  Joseph  of  Arimathea*)  came  into  this  country 

*  See  Duirdale's  Monasticon. 


296  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

and  preached  the  Christian  faith  to  Arviragus,  who  refused 
to  embrace  it,  and  yet  granted  them  this  place,  with  twelve 
hides  of  land :  where  they  made  walls  of  wattles,  and  erect- 
ed the  first  church  in  this  kingdom.  These  twelve,  and  their 
successors,  continuing  long  the  same  number,  and  leading  an 
eremetical  life,  converted  a  great  multitude  of  pagans  to  the 
faith  of  Christ. 

This  report,  however,  is  shown  by  Ussher,  in  his  Latin 
work,  and  Stillingfleet,  in  his  English  work  on  the  British 
churches,  to  have  been  first  produced  in  the  Norman  times, 
during  the  eleventh  century,  and  was  therefore  unknown  to 
the  Saxon  kings  who  had  previously  favored  the  rising  of 
this  foundation.  But  though  Joseph  of  Arimathea=^  was 
never  at  Glastonbury,  it  may  be  allowed  that  an  ancient 
British  church  was  there,  as  described  by  Sir  Henry  Spel- 
man:  and  the  antiquary  Leland,  with  others,  conjecture 
that  some  eremitical  person  named  Joseph,  with  his  com- 
panions, not  only  resided,  but  was  interred  there,  and  this 
circumstance  led  on  to  the  story  of  the  actual  settlement  and 
interment  there  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea. 

This  church,  we  are  told,  was  the  sacred  repository  of  the 
ashes  of  a  multitude  of  saints,  insomuch  that  no  corner  of  it 
or  of  the  church-yard  is  destitute  of  the  same.  In  so  great 
reverence  was  it  held,  that  people  would  not  so  much  as  spit 
in  the  church-yard  ;  and  even  from  foreign  countries  the 
earth  of  this  church-yard  was  sent  for,  to  bury  with  the 
greatest  persons.  Here,  as  within  the  walls  of  lona,  should 
Johnson  have  trod. 

The  evidence  in  favor  of  St.  Paul  having  preached  the 
Gospel  in  Britain  is  very  strong  indeed,  if  not  quite  irrefraga- 
ble :  especially  when  we  consider  that  both  classical  and 
ecclesiastical  writers  agree  that  Britain  was  spoken  of  as  "  the 
utmost  bounds  of  the  west."  Be  this  as  it  may  concerning 
St.  Paul,  it  seems  to  be  satisfactorily  proved  that  the  Church 
of  England  can  trace,  through  its  various  gradations  of  the 
Tudor,  Plantagenet,  Norman,  Anglo-Saxon,  and  British  times, 
its  origin  upward  to  the  Apostolic  age. 

*  See  "  The  Church  of  England,  apostolical  in  its  Origin,"  &e.  By 
Rev.  Thomas  P.  Pantin.  M.  A.     Wertheim  &  Co.    1849. 


MONASTIC  LIFE.  297 

The  building  of  churches,  the  gifts  of  tithes  by  means  of 
■which  we  have  now  the  Gospel  without  money  and  without 
price  in  the  Church  of  England,  the  founding  of  monasteries, 
became  in  due  time  mighty  examples  of  deep  piety.  "  Cer- 
tainly," says  a  writer,  "  the  fasts  of  these  days  were  frequent, 
the  prayers  earnest,  and  the  alms  remarkable." 

At  first  these  institutions  were  full  of  use  to  mankind,  and 
without  abuse.  The  style  of  living  was  poor  and  plain, 
while  the  labors  were  arduous.  The  rules  said  to  have  been 
prescribed  to  his  monks,  or  canons,  by  St.  Augustine,  are  all 
of  a  simple,  self-denying  character.^  But  we  read,  that 
these  canons  afterward  growing  wealthy,  entirely  fell  off  from 
their  strict  discipline,  indulging  themselves  in  worldly  pomps 
and  excess,  which  produced  another  sort  of  those  who  were 
called  Canons  Regulars,  the  others  being  called  Secular,  that 
is.  Irregular,  this  making  them  decline  so  as  to  be  almost 
lost :  but  they  were  again  revived  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1380. 

Of  the  monks  of  Lanthony  Abbey,  we  are  informed,  many 
lands  were  offered  them,  most  of  which  they  refused,  choos- 
ing rather  to  live  poor,  than  be  involved  in  worldly  solici- 
tude :  for  the  king  and  queen  (Henry  the  First)  pressing 
them  to  accept  of  the  whole  province  of  Bergelay,  they 
with  earnest  entreaties  prevailed  to  be  excused  ftom  admit- 
ting of  it. 

The  following  was  the  form  of  receiving  a  Brother  into 
the  monastery. 

*'  The  first  Petition  in  the  Colloquium.! 

<<  Syr — I  besyche  you  and  alle  the  Convent,  for  the  Luffe 
of  God,  our  Lady  Sanct  Marye,  Sant  John  of  Baptiste,  and 
alle  the  hoyle  Courte  of  hevyne,  that  Qe  wold  resave  me, 
to  live  and  dye  here  among  you  in  the  state  of  a  Monke,  as 
prebendarye  and  servant  unto  alle  to  the  Honour  of  God, 
solace  to  the  company,  prouffet  to  the  place,  and  helth  unto 
my  sawle. 

*  See  Dugdale,  vol.  ii.  p.  126.     Also  for  sequent, 
t  From  a  MS.  in  the  Cotton  Library. 


298  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

"  The  answer  unto  the  Examinacyon. 

"  Syr I  tryste,  through  the  helpe  of  God,  and  your  good 

prayers,  to   keepe  all  the   things,  which  ye  have  heyr  re- 
hersede. 

"  The  fyrst  peticyon  before  the  profession. 

«'  Syr — I  have  beyn  heyr  now  this  twell  month  near 
hand,  and  loyde  be  God,  me  lyks  ryght  well,  both  the  order 
and  the  company  ;  whereupon  I  besyche  you  and  all  the 
Company  for  the  luffe  of  God,  our  Lady  Sanct  Marye, 
Sanct  John  of  Baptist,  and  alle  the  hoyle  company  of  hevyn, 
that  ye  will  resave  me  unto  my  profession  at  my  tw^ell  month 
day,  according  to  my  Petycion  whyche  1  made  when  I  was 
fyrst  resaved  heyr  emongs  you,"  &c. 

The  very  able  and  prudent  writer  of  the  Preface  to  Dug- 
dale's  Monasticon,  remarks,  "  The  ancient  structure  and 
polity  of  our  church  is  imperfect  without  the  history  of  mon- 
asteries. The  monks  were  formerly  the  greater  part  of  the 
ecclesiastics,  and  the  walls  of  convents  were  for  a  long  time 
the  fences  of  sanctity,  and  the  better  sort  of  literature.  From 
that  seminary  came  forth  those  mighty  lights  of  the  Chris- 
tian world,  Bede,  Alcuinus,  Willebrod,  Boniface,  and  others 
worthy  of  much  honor  for  their  learning,  and  for  propagating 
the  faith.  Were  it  not  for  monks,  we  had  certainly  ever 
been  mere  children  in  the  history  of  our  country."  Again,  he 
observes,  "There  are  certain  zealots  so  religiously  mad,  as  to 
say  that  the  Rehgious  Orders  of  the  Gentils  proceeded  from 
the  bottomless  pit.  So  licentious  is  inclination  in  indulging 
itself:"  and  he  proceeds,  "  When  the  monks  were  rooted  out 
by  the  Danish  wars,  an  universal  ignorance  overspread  the 
land,  insomuch  that  there  was  scarce  any  one  in  England 
that  could  read  or  write  Latin  ;  but  when  by  the  care  of 
King  Edward  and  Archbishop  Dunstan,  monasteries  were 
restored,  learning  found  its  former  encouragement,  and  flour- 
ished very  much  within  the  walls  of  the  cloisters.  So  that 
Leland,  who  was  no  great  friend  to  the  monks,  often  confesses 
that  in  those  old  times  there  were  few  or  no  writers  but  the 
monks."    "  Bayle,  one  of  the  bitterest  enemies  the  monks  ever 


MOxNASTIC   LIFE.  299 

had,  is  forced  to  lament  the  great  damage  the  learned  world 
sustained  at  the  dissolution  of  monasteries."* 

We  have  before  alluded  to  the  ambition  and  rapaciousncss 
of  Henry  the  Eighth  and  his  nobles,  who,  coveting  the  reven- 
ues of  these  institutions,  destroyed  instead  of  reforming  them  ; 
and  now,  in  these  our  days  of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  the 
vast  increase  of  population,  and  consequent  necessity  of  more 
churches  and  ministers,  the  church  truly  needs  the  redemp- 
tion of  her  alienated  property. 

That  prejudice  has  run  out  to  its  very  utmost  tether  against 
the  monks,  must  be  allowed.  Doubtless,  great  abuses  crept 
in  among  them,  but  as  doubtless  also,  their  uses  were  vast,  t 
Multitudes  were  converted,  and  continued  in  the  Christian 
faith,  by  their  exertions.  The  various  arts  of  poetry,  physic, 
and  painting,  as  well  as  architecture  in  all  its  glory,  were 
fostered  by  them.  For  the  learning  which  we  of  the  present 
time  now  enjoy,  we  are  indebted  greatly  to  them.  For,  in 
barbarous  times,  nowhere  but  in  the  libraries  of  the  monks 
did  the  manuscripts  of  the  Grecian  and  Roman  authors  find 
protection.  Knowledge  and  science  were  contraband  in  the 
baronial  hall.  Agriculture  owns  them  as  its  patrons  to  a 
vast  extent.  And  what  would  the  accuracy  of  Rapin,  the 
penetration  of  Hume,  or  the  genius  of  Lyttelton,  have  avail- 
ed them  in  their  historical  labors,  if  monkish  records  had  not 
been  at  hand?  See  the  labors  alone  of  the  venerable  Bede, 
his  commentaries,  his  treatises,  his  religious  biographies,  his 
works   on   general    history    and   chronology ;    above    all,   his 

*  In  every  great  abbey  there  was  a  large  room  called  the  Scripto- 
rium, to  which  belonged  several  writers,  whose  whole  business  it  was 
to  transcribe  good  books  for  the  use  of  the  public  library  of  the  house. 
We  have  now  proofs  of  their  vast  industry  and  ingenuity. 

t  The  monks  long  previous  to  the  statute  of  Charles  the  Second,  for 
the  abolition  of  tenure  in  villeinage,  had  procured  the  manumission  of 
this  kind  of  slaves  ;  for  in  Blackstone  we  read  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith's 
testimony,  that  "  the  holy  fathers,  monks,  and  friars,  had  in  their  con- 
fessions, and  especially  in  their  extreme  and  deadly  sickness,  convinced 
the  laity  hoio  dangerous  a  thing  it  was  for  one  Christian  man  to  hold 
another  in  bondage  :  so  that  temporal  men,  by  little  and  little,  by  reason 
of  that  terror  in  their  consciences,  were  glad  to  manumit  all  their  vil- 
leins.'"— Commentaries  on  the  Laics  of  England^  book  ii.  chap.  6,  edit. 
4to,  1766. 


300  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

Ecclesiastical  History  of  nearly  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  a 
period  the  most  important ;  and  though  we  may  not  feel  in- 
clined to  go  so  far  as  Macaulay  in  his  assertion,^  that  "it  is 
difficult  to  say  whether  England  owes  more  to  tlie  Roman 
Catholic  rehgion  or  to  the  Reformation  i"  yet  with  him, 
viewing  the  power  of  the  priests  as  mental,  and  the  priests 
themselves  by  far  the  wisest  portion  of  society,  we  may  agree, 
"  that  it  was  on  the  whole  good  that  they  should  be  respect- 
ed and  obeyed,  and  that  their  dominion  in  the  Dark  Ages 
had  been,  in  spite  of  many  abuses,  a  legitimate  and  a  salutary 
guardianship."  Then  they  exercised  a  power  which  "natu- 
rally and  properly,"  as  says  Macaulay,  "  belongs  to  intellect- 
ual superiority,"  and  their  influence  was  a  real  blessing  to  "  a 
society  sunk  in  ignorance,  and  ruled  by  mere  physical  force;" 
but  let  it  not  for  a  moment  be  supposed,  that  we  would  seek 
at  all  to  advocate  the  predominance  of  the  sacerdotal  over  the 
civil  power,  in  the  present  time,  when  superiority  of  intellect, 
or  extent  and  profoundness  of  learning,  in  sciences  theological 
and  secular  alike,  reside  with  no  peculiar  body  of  sacred  men, 
but  are  shared  equally  by  all.  No,  in  these  pages,  the  union 
of  the  state  with  the  church  has  been  supported,  which  at 
once  overthrows  all  idea  of  priestly  or  any  other  dominion, 
but  that  which  is  popular  ;  and  it  may  be  held,  that  in  Rome 
itself,  the  greatest  blessing  will  be  a  representative  form  of 
government,  similar,  in  great  degree,  to  that  which  England 
enjoys  with  so  much  honor  and  moral  integrity — certainly  it 
will  be  well  that  the  Pope  and  cardinals  no  longer  arrogate 
to  themselves  the  government  of  the  Papal  states.! 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  49.  Macaulay's  History  of  England. 

t  Johnson,  in  his  tragedy  of  "Irene,"'  has  this  passage 

"  Abdalla. 
"  Then  seize  fair  Italy's  delightful  coast, 
To  fix  your  standard  in  imperial  Rome. 

"  jMoha:\imed. 

"  Her  sons  malicious  clemency  shall  spare. 
To  form  new  legends,  sanctify  new  crimes, 
To  canonize  the  slaves  of  superstition, 
And  fill  the  world  with  follies  and  impostures, 
'Till  angry  Heaven  shall  mark  them  out  for  ruin, 
And  war  o'erwhelm  them  in  their  dream  of  vice. 


MONASTIC  LIFE.  301 

Notwithstanding  abuses  of  the  system,  and  they  were 
many,  we  must  give,  in  fairness,  all  honor  to  the  benefits 
derived  from  the  estabhshment  of  monasteries,  in  ages  when 
learned  men  could  only  exist,  and  carry  on  their  pursuits,  un- 
der the  protection  and  advantage  of  association.  In  his  own 
"  Journey"  Dr.  Johnson  says,  "  It  has  been,  for  many  years, 
popular  to  talk  of  the  lazy  devotion  of  the  Romish  clergy  ; 
over  the  sleepy  laziness  of  men  that  erected  churches,  we  may 
indulge  our  superiority  with  a  new  triumph  by  comparing 
it  ivith  the  fervid  activity  of  those  ivlio  suffer  them  to  falir 

And  mark  the  decay  of  religion  with  the  fall  of  the  mon- 
astery, lona,  once  the  abode  of  sanctity,  is  now  left  to  the 
fruitfulness  of  its  earth  alone.  "  The  inhabitants,"  observes 
Dr.  Johnson,  "  are  remarkably  gross,  and  remarkably  neg- 
lected ;  I  know  not  if  they  are  visited  hy  anij  minister.  The 
island,  which  was  once  the  metropolis  of  learning  and  piety, 
has  now  no  school  for  education,  nor  temple  for  ivorship,  only 
two  inhabitants  that  can  speak  English,  and  not  one  that  can 
write  or  read'' 

Both  Mr.  Bos  well  and  himself  were  much  affected  at  view- 
ing the  ruins  of  lona,  and  he  parted  from  the  painful  sight, 
with  the  consolation,  that  "  perhaps,  in  the  Jevolutions  of  the 
world,  lona  may  be  some  time  again  the  instructress  of  the 
western  regions." 

Of  Icolmkill,  this  extract  from  the  "  Journey"  must  be 
given  Speaking  of  the  illustrious  island,  once  the  luminary 
of  Scotland,  bestowing  the  light  of  knowledge  and  religion  on 
a  savage  and  roving  people,  where  to  abstract  the  mind  from 
all  local  emotion  would  be  impossible,  and  to  endeavor  to  do 
BO,  if  possible,  were  foolish,  he  writes,  "  Whatever  withdraws 

O  could  her  fabled  saints  and  boasted  prayers 

Call  forth  her  ancient  heroes  to  the  field, 

How  should  I  joy,  'midst  the  fierce  shock  of  nations, 

To  cross  the  tow'rings  of  an  equal  soul, 

And  bid  the  master  genius  rule  the  world.'' — Act  iv.  Sc.  2. 

In  the  year  1849  "war  has  o'erwhelmed"  a  portion  of  them  ''in 
their  dream  of  vice;"  and  another  portion  have  emulated  "  her  ancient f 
heroes;"  but  as  yet  the  infidel  power,  the  Antichrist  that  denieth  the 
Father  and  the  Son  (hence  not  Mohammedan^  has  not  appeared. 


302  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

us  from  the  power  of  our  senses,  whatever  makes  tne  past,  the 
distant,  or  the  future  predominate  over  the  present,  advances 
us  in  the  dignity  of  thinking  beings.  Far  from  me  and  my 
friends  be  such  frigid  philosophy  as  may  conduct  us  iadifTer- 
ent  and  unmoved  over  any  ground  which  has  been  dignified 
by  wisdom,  bravery,  or  virtue.  That  man  is  httle  to  be  en- 
vied, whose  patriotism  would  not  gain  force  upon  the  plain 
of  Marathon,  or  whose  piety  ivould  not  grow  ivarmer  among 
the  ruins  of  lona.'"^ 

Monasteries  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  needed  in  the  present 
age,  when  we  consider  the  large,  though  still  inadequate, 
staff  of  pastoral  clergy.  Neither  can  nunneries  be  wanted, 
although  many  persons  think  that  our  Protestant  church 
does  not  sufficiently  shelter  and  solace  the  afflicted  and  lone- 
ly ones  in  the  world,  who  might  by  associating  together  under 
certain  rules,  comfort  one  another  in  their  pilgrimage,  and  be 
the  means  of  edifying  others.  Of  course  the  system  of  vows 
must  be  at  an  end,  and  young  persons  must  not  be  shut  out 
from  natural  scenes  and  delights ;   as  Wordsworth  says, 

"  It  was  a  breezy  hour  of  eve  : 

And  pinnacle  and  spii'c 
Quiver'd  and  seem'd  almost  to  heave, 

Clothed  with  innocuous  fire  ; 
But,  where  we  stood,  the  setting  sun 

Show'd  little  of  his  state  : 
And,  if  the  glory  reached  the  nun^ 

^Tivas  through  an  iron  grate?'' 

What  do  these  last  two  lines  not  convey  to  our  minds  I 
No,  we  want  Protestant  Sisters  of  Mercy  and  Charity,  living 
in  their  own  homes,  but  going  about  doing  good  in  these 
troubled  yet  hopeful  times  ;   persons  of  laborious  piety,  high- 

*  Hannah  More,  with  lesser  degree  of  zeal,  says  of  a  vo^'age  down 
the  Wye,  "  We  deplored  the  ruthless  hand  of  war,  which  had  dis- 
mantled castles ;  and  we  contemplated  abbeys,  which  the  mouldering 
hand  of  time  would  have  mellowed  into  more  affecting  beauty,  had  the 
zeal  of  reformation  confined  itself  to  opinions  and  principles,  and  not 
vented  its  undistinguishing  fury  on  stone  walls,  and  pillars,  and  win- 
dows." 

In  the  preface  to  Izaak  Walton's  "  Complete  Angler,"  we  have  an 
account  of  the  religious  establishment  of  Mr.  Nicholas  Farrer,  at  Little 
Gidding,  near  Huntingdon  ;  and  such  system  could  hardly  be  found 
fault  with. 


MOxNASTIC  LIFE.  303 

minded  zeal,  and  self-denying  devotion.  We  want,  as  it  has 
been  well  hinted,  witnesses  every  where,  in  every  calling,  in 
every  grade  ;  we  want  the  good  leaven,  not  retreating  and 
hiding  within  sacred  walls,  but  pervading  all  society,  and 
giving  to  all  its  Christian  tone.  We  want  Christian  duch- 
esses, Christian  gentlewomen,  Christian  officers,  Christian 
lawyers,  living  in  their  own  appointed  and  natural  sphere, 
acting  upon  the  bodies  among  whom  they  naturally  move, 
and  continuing  in  their  position,  as  though  they  felt  it  to  be 
providential,  and  had  there  to  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  their 
Saviour.*  These  we  want  every  where,  not  ladies  who  con- 
descend to  go  among  the  poor,  and  talk  in  a  fine  way,  but 
such  as  Mrs.  Godolphin,t  one  of  the  noblest  daughters  of  the 
English  church,  whose  interior  piety  was  profound,  and  her 
religious  works  unbounded.  Goodness  and  righteous  zeal, 
indeed,  was  to  be  expected  from  one,  who  could  in  gentleness 
and  humility  say,  "  Before  I  speake.  Lord  assist  me :  when  I 
pray.  Lord  heare  me  ;  when  I  am  praised,  God  humble  me; 
may  the  clock,  the  candle,  every  thing  I  see,  instruct  me  : 
Lord,  cleanse  my  hands,  lett  my  feete  tread  thy  pathes." 
Thus  we  find  her  spending  much  of  her  time  in  "  workeing 
for  poore  people,"  "  spending  much  of  her  tyme,  and  no  little  of 
her  money,  in  relieving,  visiting,  and  enquireing  of  them  out." 
What  an  example  in  her  for  all  district  visitors  I  "I  have 
already  told,"  says  Evelyn,  "  how  diligently  she  would  en- 
quire out  the  poore  and  miserable,  even  in  hospitals,  humble 
cells,  and  cottages,  while  I  have  often  accompanyed  her,  as 
farr  as  the  very  skirts  and  obscure  places  of  the  towne, 
among  whom  she  not  only  gave  liberall  almes,  but  physitians 
and  physick,  she  would  send  to  some,  yea,  and  administer  reme- 
dyes  herselfe,  and  the  meanest  offices.  She  would  sit,  and  read, 
and  instruct,  and  pray  whole  afternoones,  and  tooke  care  for 
their  spiritual  reliefe  by  procureing  a  minister  of  religion  to 
prepare  them  for  the  Holy  Sacrament,  for  which  purpose  she 
not  only  carry "d  and  gaue  them  bookes  of  salvation  and  de- 
votion, but  had  herselfe  collected  diverse  psalmes  and  chap- 

*  Englis^h  Review,  Xo.  16. 

t  See  the  Life  of  ]Mrs.  Godolphin,  by  John  Evelyn,  edited  by  the 
Bishop  of  Oxford.     Pickering. 


304  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

ters  proper  to  be  read  and  used  upon  such  occasions.  Nor 
was  home  neglected,  for  of  her  servants  it  is  said,  'she  pro- 
vided them  bookes  to  read,  prayers  to  use  by  themselves,  and 
constantly  instructed  them  herselfe  in  the  principles  of  re- 
ligion :  tooke  care  for  their  due  receiveing  of  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ment.'" Let  women  saintly  and  devoted  as  this  blessed  one 
abound  in  society,  and  much  more  the  welfare  of  the  poor 
and  the  uninstructed  would  be  consulted,  than  by  any  en- 
couragement of  the  cell,  the  cloister,  and  the  vail. 

Dr.  Johnson  spoke  of  the  administration  of  the  Sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  in  one  kind  only,  and  said,  "They  may 
think,  in  what  is  merely  ritual,  deviations  from  the  primitive 
mode  may  be  admitted  on  the  ground  of  convenience."  We 
should  bear  in  mind,  however,  that  this  sacrament  is  not 
merely  ritual ;  and  that  the  Church  of  Pvome  regards  not 
the  giving  the  bread  only  to  the  laity  as  any  deviation  from 
the  primitive  mode,  for  they  argue, ^  that  although  our  blessed 
Lord  said,  Unless  ye  shall  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
and  drink  his  blood,  ye  shall  have  no  life  in  you.  He  also 
said.  If  any  one  shall  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  for 
ever  :  and  also  that  the  converts  of  Jerusalem  tvere  perse- 
vei'ing  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostles,  and  in  breaking  oj 
bread,  and  in  praijer  (Acts  ii.  42),  also  on  the  first  day  oy 
the  iveek  ive  were  assembled  to  break  bread.  (Acts  xx.  7.) 
Thus  they  deem  that  they  have  Scriptural,  and  hence  primi- 
tive authority  for  administering  the  Holy  Sacrament  in  one 
kind  only.  But  this  "  breaking  of  bread"  was  not  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Eucharist,  but  simply  a  common  partici- 
pation of  meals,  taken  in  charitable  communion  and  religious 
thankfulness,  and  followed  by  prayer. f 

He  said,  "  No  reasoning  Papist  believes  every  article  of 
their  faith  ;"  and  after  observing,  that  a  good  man  of  a  tim- 
orous and  credulous  disposition,  might  be  glad  to  be  of  a 
church  where  there  are  so  many  helps  to  get  to  heaven,  he 
exclaimed,  "  I  would  be  a  Papist  if  I  could.  I  have  fear 
enough  :  but  an  obstinate  ratiojiality  prevents  me.  I  shall 
never  be  a  Papist,  vmless  on  the  near  approach  of  death,  of 

*  See  Council  of  Trent,  Sess.  21,  c.  1. 
t  See  Blomfield  on  Acts  ii.  42. 


MONASTIC  LIFE.  305 

"which  I  have  a  very  great  terror  I  I  wonder  that  women 
are  not  all  Papists." 

BoswELL. — "They  are  not  more  afraid  of  death  than  men 
are." 

Johnson. — '*  Because  they  are  less  wicked." 

Dr.  Adams. — "  They  are  more  pious." 

Johnson. — "  No;  hang  'em  they  are  not  more  pious.  A 
•wicked  fellow  is  the  most  pious  when  he  takes  to  it.  He'll 
beat  you  all  at  piety." 

On  the  same  principle,  one  would  suppose,  that,  as  has 
been  said,  reformed  rakes  make  the  best  husbands.  Beware 
of  that  reed. 

In  the  above  conversation  the  substantial  character  of  Dr. 
Johnson  is  apparent.  He  could  not  be  blindly  led.  "  An 
obstinate  rationality  prevents  me  ;"  or,  in  better  words,^  a 
capacity  for  profound  reasoning  prevents  my  assent  to  a  system 
which  is  not  true.  Herein  was  the  bar  to  his  ever  becoming 
a  Roman  Catholic.  Yet,  because  he  would  argue  reason- 
ably, not  regarding  the  Church  of  Rome,  with  enthusi- 
asts, as  antichrist ;  and  because  his  benevolent  disposition 
never  faltered  toward  Roman  Catholics  ;  therefore  some 
would  rashly  conclude  that  he  was  too  favorable  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion.  He  himself  said,  that  old  Mr. 
Langton,  though  a  man  of  considerable  learning,  had  so 
little  allowance  to  make  for  his  "  laxity  of  talk,  that  becaXjse 
in  course  of  discussion  he  sometimes  mentioned  what  misfht  be 
said  in  favor  of  the  peculiar  tenets  of  the  Romish  Church,  he 
went  to  his  grave  believing  him  to  be  of  that  communion." 

His  "  laxity  of  talk"  sometimes  took  a  contrary  part. 
Boswell  makes  a  record  of  an  evening  when  he  expressed 
himself  strongly  against  the  Roman  Catholics,  observing,  "  In 
every  thing  in  which  they  differ  from  us,  they  are  wrong." 

On  another  occasion,  when  it  was  suggested  that  monu- 
ments should  be  erected  in  St.  Paul's  church  to  eminent  in- 
dividuals, and  somebody  proposed  that  the  first  should  be  to 
Pope,  he  said,  "  Why,  sir,  as  Pope  was  a  Roman  Catholic, 
I  would  not  have  his  to  be  first.  I  think  Milton's  should 
rather  have  the  precedence." 

Lady  Knight  says,  after  stating  that  his  political  principles 


306  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

ran  high  in  church  and  state,  "  I  know  he  dishked  absolute 
power  :  and  I  am  very  sure  of  his  disapprobation  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  church  of  Rome  ;"  and  she  states  that  about 
three  weeks  before  they  set  out  for  Rome,  he  said  to  her 
daughter,  "  You  are  going  where  the  ostentatious  pomp  of 
church  ceremonies  attracts  the  imagination ;  but  if  they 
want  to  persuade  you  to  change,  you  must  remember,  that  by 
increasing  your  faith,  you  may  be  persuaded  to  become  Turk." 

To  Mr.  Barnard,  who  was  going  to  Rome,  he  wrote  a 
long  letter,  giving  him  sundry  advice  and  caution,  but  con- 
cludes with  what  he  considers  the  most  important  lesson  of 
all.  '•  You  are  going,  he  writes,  "  into  a  part  of  the  world 
divided,  as  it  is  said,  between  bigotry  and  atheism:  such 
representations  are  always  hyperbolical,  but  there  is  certainly 
enough  of  both  to  alarm  any  mind  solicitous  for  piety  and 
truth  :  let  not  the  contempt  of  superstition  precipitate  you 
into  infidelity,  or  the  horror  of  infidelity,  ensnare  you  in 
superstition." 

He  was  always  kind  to  individuals.  Toward  Romanist 
as  also  Protestant  priests  he  would  ever  havefelt,  that  "ma- 
levolence to  the  clergy  is  seldon  at  a  great  distance  from 
irreverence  of  religion."*  Though  he  has  spoken  against 
conversion  from,  the  Church  of  Rome,  yet  his  kindness  to- 
ward the  Rev.  Mr.  Compton,  one  of  the  English  Benedic- 
tine monks  at  Paris,  was  very  grellt,  after  this  priest  had 
renounced  the  errors  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  which  he  was 
led  on  to  do  from  perusal  of  the  article  in  the  "  Rambler"! 
on  repentance.  He  kept  him  at  his  house  in  Loudon,  support- 
ed him  for  upward  of  a  year,  and  caused  him  to  be  intro- 
duced to  the  Bishop  of  London,  also  writing  on  his  behalf 
to  other  parties  ;   by  which  means  he  obtained  preferm.ent. 

Dr.  Johnson  was  told  of  a  Mr.  Chamberlayne,  who  gave 
up  great  prospects,  and  went  over  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 
He,  who  warmly  admired  every  man  who  acted  from  a  con- 
scientious regard  to  principle,  erroneous  or  not,  exclaimed, 
fervently,  "  God  bless  him  I" 

Let  us  look  faithfully  into  Dr.  Johnson's  religious  conver- 
sation, and  religious  character,  and  we  can  not  fail  to  agree 
*  Life  of  Dryden.  t  No.  110. 


MONASTIC  LIFE.  307 

with  Mrs.  Piozzi,  who  says,  "  Though  beloved  by  all  his 
Roman  Catholic  acquaintance,  yet  was  he  a  most  unshaken 
Church  of  England  man."  He  was  liberal  and  charitable 
to  Roman  Catholics,  because  he  could  see  that  they  belonged 
to  a  fundamentally  Christian,  though  corrupted  church.  He 
would  therefore  seek  to  win,  rather  than  scold.  He  could 
not  hold,  with  Bishop  Newton,  Mede,  Benson,  &c.,  that  the 
Church  of  Rome  was  antichrist,  but  rather  took  the  enlarged 
view  of  Horsley,  Jones  of  Nayland,  and  our  celebrated  modern 
divines.  Burton,  Palmer,  Arnold,  Todd,  Mill,  Lee,  and  others 
of  learned  and  investigating  minds.  And  when  once  we  can 
get  what  Arnold  called  "this  nonsense,  and  more  than  non- 
sense" out  of  our  heads,  our  hearts  will  naturally  become 
more  conciliatory  and  loving.  Still,  although  the  Pvoman 
Catholics  must  be  aware  that  the  charges  heaped  against 
them  on  this  score  are  mere  calumny  and  misrepresentation, 
yet,  though  conscious  of  innocence,  such  treatment,  so  often 
repeated,  is  difficult  to  bear.  "  If  a  man,"  said  Boswell,  in 
allusion  to  another  circumstance,  "  endeavors  to  convince  me 
that  my  wife,  whom  I  love  very  much,  and  in  whom  I  place 
great  confidence,  is  a  disagreeable  woman,  and  is  even  un- 
faithful to  me,  I  shall  be  very  angry,  for  he  is  putting  me  in 
fear  of  being  unhappy." 

Murray. — "But,  sir,  truth  will  always  bear  an  examina- 
tion." Johnson. — "  Yes,  sir,  but  it  is  painful  to  be  forced 
to  defend  it.  Consider,  sir,  how  should  you  like,  though  con- 
scious of  your  innocence,  to  be  tried  before  a  jury  for  a  capital 
crime,  once  a  week." 

We  often  see  coarse  and  unscrupulous  means  of  exciting 
the  prejudices  of  the  vulgar  resorted  to  :  and  we  have  instances 
also  of  amiable  minds  being  led  thereby  into  acts  of  perse- 
cution. In  Lord  Hardwick's  time,  the  idle  reports  that  the 
tartaned  and  papistical  Highlanders  ate  young  children  for 
supper,  and  that  the  butchers  would  be  ruined  by  the  observ- 
ance of  Lent,  effected  more  with  the  mob  than  the  deter- 
mined speech  he  wrote  for  the  king.*  When  Garrick  engaged 
with  Mr.  Noverre  to  exhibit  the  Chinese  Festival,!  the  pie- 

*  George  the  Second.  Campbell's  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,  vol. 
V.  p.  100.  t  Life  of  Garrick,  vol.  i.  p.  180. 


308  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

judice  of  the  people  was  so  strong  against  Frenchmen  and 
Papists,  that,  notwithstanding  the  royal  command,  and  even 
the  presence  of  the  king,  the  popular  Garrick  was  forced  to 
abandon  it,  after  scenes  of  riot  and  bloodshed  that  will  ever 
be  memorable  in  theatrical  annals.  Let  us  recollect  also  the 
Gordon  riots,  serious  indeed,  although  with  many  of  the  ruf- 
fians the  cry  of  "  No  Popery"  was  interpreted  to  mean  and 
efiect  "  Much  Pillage.  "=^ 

"It  is  not  only  hard,"  observes  a  political  writer^f  "  to  dis- 
tinguish between  too  little  and  too  much,  but  between  the 
good  and  evil  intentions  of  the  different  Reformers.  One 
man  calls  out  '  Fire '  that  he  may  save  the  house,  another, 
that  he  may  run  away  with  the  furniture." 

The  same  also  says,  "  Whether  men  come  honestly  by 
their  opinions  or  not,  it  is  more  advisable  to  refute  than  to 
burn,  or  even  to  scorch  them."  Dr.  Johnson  was  of  the 
same  opinion.  When  standing  on  the  ruins  of  the  cathedral 
of  St.  Andrew's,  he  said,  "Knox  had  set  on  a  mob  without 
knowing  where  it  would  end  :  and  that  differing  from  a  man 
in  doctrine  was  no  reason  why  you  should  pull  his  house  about 
his  ears."  Lord  Halifax,^  a  statesman  of  great  genius  and 
capacious  views  in  the  time  of  WiUiam  the  Third,  who  dis- 
liked the  bigotry  of  Churchman  or  Puritan,  was  always  unable 
to  comprehend  how  any  man  should  object  to  saints'  days  and 
Burplices,  and  how  any  man  should  persecute  any  other  man 
for  objecting  to  them.  How  charitably  Jeremy  Taylor  says,s^ 
"  Because  that  a  thing  is  not  true,  is  not  argument  suf- 
ficient to  conclude  that  he  that  believes  it  true  is  not  to  be 
endured." 

Dr.  Johnson's  "poor  Jack "II  is  hourly  disturbed  by  the 
dread  of  Popery.  Among  other  wild  wanderings  and  wishes,^ 
he  is  rejoiced  at  the  admission  of  Jews  to  the  English  privi- 
leges, because  he  thought  a  Jew  ivoidcl  never  he  a  Pajnst. 

Poor  Hannah  More,  when  she  wrote  against  Dissent,  was 

*  See  England  under  the  House  of  Hanover,  by  T.  Wright,  Esq. 
M.A.  F.S.A.  t  Richard  Sharp, 

X   See  Macaulay's  account  of  him,  vol.  i.  p.  242,  243. 
^    Liber,  of  Prophes.  p.  355. 
II  Jack  Sneaker,  in  the  Idler,  vol.  i.  No.  10. 


MOiNASTIC  LIFE.  303 

accused  of  favoring  Popery,  and  the  old  Popish  massacres. 
Her  very  kindness  was  abused.  One  pamphlet  "  accused 
me"  she  says,  "  of  opposing  God's  vengeance  against  Popery, 
by  my  wickedly  wishing  that  the  French  priests  should  not 
be  starved,  when  it  was  God's  will  that  they  should  I  "  This 
good  Protestant  could  rather  say,  "  For  my  own  part,  reading 
as  I  almost  every  day  do,  a  portion  of  Nicole,  or  some  other 
good  Jansenist,  I  can  not  but  conceive  heaven  open  to  the 
conscientious  Papist."  "  Nay,  in  that  part  of  religion  which 
comes  under  the  name  of  devotion,  ice  on  our  side  should 
probably  be  at  a  loss  to  produce  instances  as  numerous  "  (of 
sublime  piety)  "and  as  elevated  as  the  Romish  :"  partly  to 
be  accounted  for,  she  thinks,  by  their  secluded  habits  and 
monastic  lives,  although  she  thought  rightly,  that  we  are  not 
so  much  required  to  live  oitt  of  the  world  as  to  live  above  it. 
She  liked  Protestantism  best  in  its  connection  with  the  char- 
acter and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England,  for  she  never 
could  live  in  unison  with  those  eager  men  who  were  for  re- 
forming reformation,  and  measuring  religious  advancement  by 
the  length  of  its  departure  from  the  practice  of  the  Papal 
church." 

Do  we  not  here  view,  however  differing  in  other  respects, 
the  very  mind  in  her  of  Hooker  and  Dr.  Johnson  ?  all  three 
agreeing  with  Jeremy  Taylor,  "  There  is  nothing  in  the 
foundation  of  faith  that  can  reasonably  hinder  them  (Roman- 
ists) to  be  permitted  ;  the  foundation  of  faith  stands  secure 
enough  for  all  their  vain  and  unhandsome  superstructures." 
It  is  against  these  latter  that  we  can  best,  as  well  as  most 
conscientiously  contend, 

"  Three  hundred  years  ago,"  says  Peter  Plymley  ^  to  his 
reverend  brother  Abraham,  "  men  burnt  and  hanged  each 
other  for  their  opinions  ;  time  has  softened  Catholic  as  well  as 
Protestant ;  they  both  required  each  ;  though  each  perceives 
only  his  own  improvement,  and  is  blind  to  that  of  the  other. 
We  are  all  the  creatures  of  circumstances.  I  know  not  a 
kinder  and  better  man  than  yourself;  but  you,  if  you  had 
lived  in  those  times,  would  certainly  liave  roasted  your  Cath- 

*  Sidney  Smith:  Pamphlet,  11th  edit.  p.  17. 


310  MOxNASTIC  LIFE. 

oZic."  Alas  I  too  many  in  the  present  time  use  language, 
which,  if  reduced  to  practice,  would  lead  to  the  adoption  of 
this  art  of  human  cookery. 

A  kindred  mind,*  in  all  but  its  facetiousness,  said,  "  I  wish 
very  much  to  see  before  my  death  an  image  of  a  primitive 
Christian  church.  With  little  improvement,  I  think  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  of  Ireland  very  capable  of  exhibiting 
that  state  of  things."  I  can  not  think  so.  Would  not  the 
poor  Episcopal  church  of  Scotland  be  nearer  the  primitive 
pattern  ?  He  also  said,  "  I  think  that  a  Catholic  is  a  member 
of  Christ's  church  just  as  much  as  I  am,  and  I  could  well 
endure  one  form  of  that  church  in  England  and  another  in 
Ireland." 

Although  we  may  see  the  minds  of  high  churchmen  and 
liberals  united  on  a  certain  point,  we  must  not  be  led  away 
with  the  idea  that  any  real  union  of  thinking  exists  between 
them  generally.  Dr.  Johnson  and  Dr.  Arnold — the  anti- 
podes !  The  former  was  always  looking  up  to  higher  devoted- 
ness,  higher  discipline,  Laud  and  his  few,  not  Knox  and  his 
rabble  ;  the  latter  was  ever  casting  his  eye  of  love  abroad, 
thinking  how  to  unite  all,  not  favoring  the  Roman  Catholic 
and  taunting  the  Presbyterian,  but  imagining  how  he  could 
bid  them  both  shake  hands  ;  both  regard  only  the  handsome 
features  in  each  other's  countenances  ;  both  consent  to  the 
vesper  chant  and  Puritan  hymn  under  one  and  the  same  roof. 
How  much  of  the  former's  religion  we  behold  in  his  lines  : 

"  See,  when  the  vulgar  'scapes,  despised  or  awed, 
RebelUon's  vengeful  talons  seize  on  Laud. 
From  meaner  minds,  though  smaller  fines  content, 
The  plunder'd  palace,  or  sequester'd  rent ; 
Mark'd  out  by  dangerous  parts,  he  meets  the  shock. 
And  fatal  learning  leads  him  to  the  block  ; 
Around  his  tomb  let  Art  and  Genius  weep, 
But  hear  his  death,  ye  blockheads,  hear  and  sleep. 

and  how  much  of  the  natural  and  fresh  piety  of  the  latter,  in 
his  admiration  f  of  the  lines  of  the  Baron  Von  Canitz  : 

*  A  Fragment  on  the  Church,  by  Thomas  Arnold,  D.D.    1844. 
t  See  Notes  to  "  Christian  Life,  its  Course,  its  Hindrances,  and  its 
Helps,"  by  Thomas  Arnold,  D.D. 


MONASTIC  LIFE.  311 

'  Only  God's  free  gifts  abuse  not, 
His  light  refuse  not, 
But  still  His  Spirit's  voice  obey  : 
Soon  shall  joy  thy  brow  be  wreathing, 
Splendor  breathing 
Fairer  than  the  fairest  day. 
"If  aught  of  care  this  morn  oppress  ther, 
To  Him  address  thee, 
Who,  like  the  sun,  is  good  to  all : 
He  gilds  the  mountain-tops,  the  while 
His  gracious  smile 
Will  on  the  humblest  valley  fall." 

He  loved  to  view  religion  every  where  ;  all  places  should  be 
sacred.  And  though  he  disliked  the  idea  of  a  priesthood, 
and  could  not  bear  to  view  "  Christian  rehgion  profaned  by 
antichristian  fables  ;  Christian  holiness  marred  by  supersti- 
tion and  uncharitableness  ;  Christian  wisdom  and  Christian 
sincerity  scoffed  at,  reviled,  and  persecuted  out  of  sight;"  yet 
he  thought  "  that  in  the  Romish  system  there  were  many 
good  institutions,  and  practices,  and  feelings,  which  it  would 
be  viost  desirable  to  restore  among  ourselves."  He  enumer- 
ates them  as  "  daily  church  services  ;  frequent  communions ; 
memorials  of  our  Christian  calling  continually  presented  to 
our  notice,  in  crosses  and  wayside  oratories  ;  commemora- 
tions of  holy  men  of  all  times  and  countries;  the  doctrine 
of  the  communion  of  saints  practically  taught;  religious 
orders,  especially  of  women,  of  different  kinds,  and  under  dif- 
ferent rules,  delivered  only  from  the  snare  and  sin  of  perpet- 
ual vows=^ — all  these,  most  of  which  are  of  some  efficacy  for 
good,  even  in  a  corrupt  church,  belong  no  less  to  the  true 
church,  and  tvould  there  he  purely  beneficial"  \ 

Yes,  these  would  be  reforms,  apart  from  the  Pope  and  the 
domination  of  a  priesthood,  especially  if  the  whole  body  of 
the  clergy  countenanced  them.  Arnold  recognized  the  doc- 
trine of  the  crown's  supremacy,  as  "  a  rare  and  mere  bless- 
ing of  God,"  and  there  is  no  prospect  of  this  blessing  becom- 
ing void.  But  the  clergy  cry  out  against  such  things  as  are 
here  recommended,  as  leanings  to  Popery,  so  perpetually  is 
Protestantism  bugbeared  by  her  own  confession  of  weakness. 

*  Introduction  to  the  "  Christian  Life,'"  &c.,  p.  5Q. 

t  See  again  Preface  to  Jzaak  Walton's  Angler  ;  vows  not  permitted. 


312  MONASTIC   LIFE. 

Why  can  not  she  do  the  thing  that  is  right,  without  fear  of 
her  people  deserting  her  ?  There  is  something  very  pusil- 
lanimous and  pettish  in  this  harassing  fear  of  the  attraction 
of  Popery.  Let  it  be  our  constant  aim  to  oppose  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in  this  country  :  let 
us  prove  that  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  and  man^of  the 
Popish  doctrines  are  without  warrant  from  Holy  Scripture  ; 
but  never  let  us  cease  to  elevate  the  devoutness  of  Protest- 
antism, to  place  her  in  a  primitive  position,  and  by  rejecting 
not  the  foundation  points,  but  the  novel  superstructures  of 
the  Romanist  belief,  ever  seek  to  show  that  the  Church  of 
England  is  a  true  branch  of  the  Catholic  church  of  Chris- 
tianity. Dr.  Johnson  took  the  same  line  as  afterward  pro- 
posed by  Dr.  Arnold  ;  both  argued  against  the  errors  of  the 
Romanist  doctrine,  both  spoke  in  favor  of  the  Romanist 
devotional  practice.  This  may  not  be  popular,  for,  as 
Leigh  Hunt  tells  us  of  Henry  the  Eighth's  time,  "  the  monk 
then  ceased  to  walk,  and  the  gallant  London  apprentice  be- 
came more  riotous,"  so  in  the  present  day  does  this  riotous- 
ness  abound,  much  to  the  detriment  of  staidness  of  habit,  and 
love  of  daily  religion. 

The  young  and  gifted  Kirke  White,  in  an  excellent  let- 
ter to  his  brother  James  on  the  Services  of  the  Church,  speak- 
ing of  Roman  Catholics,  thus  kindly  says  :  "  There  was  once 
no  other  religion  in  the  world  ;  and  we  can  not  think  that 
church  very  wicked,  which  God  chose,  once,  to  make  the  sole 
guardian  of  his  truth.  There  have  been  many  excellent  and 
pious  men  among  the  Roman  Catholics,  even  at  the  time 
their  public  faith  was  corrupted." 

Persons  who  think  and  write  thus  are  often  exposed  dur- 
ing their  life-time  to  the  taunt  of  having  a  leaning  toward 
Popery  ;  and  thus  they  are  made  miserable,  although  they 
live  and  die  true  Protestants,  and  never  cherished  the  re- 
motest idea  of  turning  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  Of  course 
the  taunt  proceeds  from  illiberal  and  narrow  minds,  but  still 
it  has  its  pain  ;  although  it  betrays  more  fearfulness  of  becom- 
ing unsteady  in  those  who  make  the  charge,  than  in  those 
who  are  its  objects.  We  might  give  many  instances,  espe- 
cially in  recent  time,  in  proof  of  liberality  toward  others  being 


MONASTIC  LIFE.  313 

quite  consistent  with  the  firmest  maintenance  of  our  own 
opinions  ;  but  let  us  choose  an  elder  one,  that  of  the  judi- 
cious and  modest  author  of  the  preface  to  Dugdale's  Monasti- 
con,  who  says,  as  though  in  anticipation  of  a  like  charge,  '=1 
humbly  crave  leave,  before  I  advance  any  farther,  publicly  to 
profess  myself  to  be  a  sincere,  though  very  unworthy  member 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  that  I  have  as  true  and  hearty 
affection  for  her  interest  as  perhaps  any  other  person  what- 
soever. And  yet  I  can  not  but  here  publicly  declare,  that  I 
think  it  would  have  been  more  happy  for  her,  as  well  as  for 
the  nation  in  general,  had  King  Henry  the  V Tilth,  only  re- 
formed and  not  destroyed  the  abbeys  and  other  religious 
houses.  Monastic  institution  is  very  ancient,  and  it  had  been 
very  laudable,  had  he  reduced  the  manner  of  worship  to  the 
jninutive  form.  Popery,  as  T  take  it,  signifies  no  more 
than  the  errors  of  the  Church  of  Rome  ;  had  he  therefore 
put  a  stop  to  those  errors,  he  had  acted  loUehj,  and  very 
much  to  the  content  of  all  truly  good  religious  men," 

Such  men  as  these,  it  may  be  depended  on,  are  the  worthi- 
est opponents  of  the  Church  of  Pwome,  and  most  dreaded  by 
her  ;  such  men  can  take  up  a  strong  position  as  members  of 
the  true  Catholic  church,  and  Rome  knows  well  enough,  that 
against  a  firmly  compacted  phalanx  of  such  men,  she  can 
reasonably  avail  nothing,  and  that  nothing  can  bring  back 
power  to  her  again,  but  some  outrageous  outbreak  and  in- 
crease of  the  sectaries,  strong  and  rude  enough  to  break 
down  the  bulwarks  presented  by  her  ancient,  unwearied,  and 
well  instructed  foe,  the  Church  of  England.  The  battle 
must  be  fought  by  the  divines  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  and  on  their  basis  alone,  if  permanence  of 
success  be  desired  ;  they  have  stood  on  ancient  ground, 
plucked  up  the  weeds,  but  retained  all  the  plants  of  saving 
truth.  Presbyterians,  Brownists,  Independents,  as  writes 
the  Protestant  Bramhall,  have  been  Rome's  best  friends  : 
"for  certainly  they  have  done  you,"  addressing  the  Romanist 
M.  de  la  Milletiere,  "  more  service  in  England  than  ever  you 
could  have  done  for  yourselves."* 

*  See  Bramhall's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  36,  of  his  Answer  to  M.  de  la 
Milletiere. 

o 


314  MONASTIC  LIFE. 

la  these  days,  as  in  other  times,  a  man  must  be  prepared 
to  endure  obhquy,  or  rather  his  aim  will  be  exaggerated, 
when  he  endeavors  to  maintain  what  he  believes  to  be  the 
truth.  "Is  it  not  hard  measure,"  asked  Bishop  Horne,=^ 
when  a  presl5yter  and  accused  -of  being  a  Hutchinsonian, 
"  that  when  a  clergyman  only  preaches  the  doctrines  and 
enforces  the  duties  of  Christianity  from  the  Scriptures,  his 
character  shall  be  blasted  and  himself  rendered  odious  by  the 
force  of  a  name,  which,  in  such  cases,  always  signifies  what 
the  imposers  please  to  mean,  and  the  people  to  hate.  There 
are  many  names  of  this  kind  now  in  vogue.  If  a  man 
preaches  Christ,  that  he  is  the  end  of  the  law,  and  the  full- 
ness of  the  Gospel :  '  You  need  not  mind  him,  he  is  a  Hutch- 
insonian I'  If  he  mentions  the  assistance  and  direction  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  with  the  necessity  of  prayer,  mortification,  and 
the  taking  up  of  the  Cross  :  '  Oh,  he  is  a  Methodist  I'  If  he 
talks  of  the  divine  right  of  Episcopacy,  with  a  word  concern- 
ing the  danger  of  schism  :  '  Just  going  over  to  Popery  I' 
And  if  he  preaches  obedience  to  King  George  :  '  You  may 
depend  upon  it,  he  is  a  Pretender's  man  I'  " 

This  is  simply  a  portion  of  the  imperfection  of  this  lower 
world,  and  too  often  seen  in  men  of  really  religious  disposi- 
tion, as  though  to  signify  that  the  heavenly  tj^easure  is  de- 
posited but  in  earthen  vessels,  and  that  there  is  consequently 
no  perfection  on  this  side  the  grave.  Growth  in  grace, 
however,  will  destroy  the  accusing  spirit  in  man,  for  then,  as 
Cecil  says,  "there  will  be  ^norc  itsefulness,  and  less  noise; 
more  tenderness  of  conscience,  and  less  scrupulosity  :  there 
ivill  be  more  iieace,  more  hmnility :  when  the  full  corn  is  in 
the  ear,  it  bends  down  because  it  is  full."  Religion  becomes 
too  momentous  a  concern — we  make  it  not  a  matter  of  mere 
nickname  and  wrangling. 

*  Jones's  Life  of  Home,  p.  82. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

HIS     SUPERSTITION. 

Superstition  is  a  too  credulous  belief  in  supernatural 
agencies  and  visions  attendant  on  weakness  of  mind  ;  it  is  a 
favoring  of  those  secret  apprehensions  and  horrors  to  which 
mankind  are  naturally  prone.  It  is  yet  strange  that  some 
great  minds  have  been  subject  to  superstition.  The  ancient 
Greeks  and  Romans,  learned  and  valiant,  were  especially  so ; 
and  many  heroic  acts  were  performed,  and  many  attempts 
at  such  prevented,  through  the  appearance  of  the  entrails  of 
the  beast  ^  or  bird  in  sacrifice,  or  by  some  ridiculous  sign  or 
manifestation.  The  effect  of  giving  credence  to  such  things, 
is  either  t6  render  a  man  recklessly  bold,  or  to  make  him 
timid,  anxious,  and  desponding.  We  know  how  Alexander 
the  Great  became  an  abject  victim  of  superstition.  He 
turned  the  least  incident  into  a  sign  or  a  prodigy.  "  The 
court,"  says  Plutarch,!  "  swarmed  with  sacrificers,  purifiers, 
and  prognosticators  ;  they  were  all  to  be  seen  exercising  their 
talents  there.  So  true  is  it,  that  though  the  disbelief  of  re- 
ligion, and  contempt  of  things  divine,  is  a  great  evil ;  yet 
superstition  is  a  greater."  Plutarch,  however,  was  not 
always  of  this  opinion.  He  speaks  more  warily  on  another 
occasion. +  For,  after  telling  us  of  the  miracles  of  olden  time 
such  as  that  images  have  often  sweated  ;   that  they   have 

*  When  Sylla  landed  in  Italy,  he  immediately  sacrificed  :  and  the 
liver  of  the  victim  had  the  plain  impression  of  a  crown  of  laurel,  with 
two  strings  hanging  down.      Of  course  this  was  a  most  cheerinir  omen. 

When  Alexander  was  marching  toward  Babylon,  he  heard  that 
Apollodorus,  its  governor,  had  sacrificed,  in  order  to  consult  the  gods 
concerning  him.  Alexander  sent  for  Pythagoras  to  ask  him  how  the 
entrails  of  the  victim  appeared.  Pythagoras  answered,  the  liver  was 
without  a  head.      "A  terrible  presage,  indeed!"  said  Alexander. 

t  Plutarch's  Lives,  vol.  vi.  p.  105. 

t  Ibid  vol.  ii.  p.  56. 


316  'HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

been  heard  to  groan ;  and  that  sometimes  they  have  turned 
from  their  votaries,  and  shut  their  eyes  ;  he  says,  of  the  won- 
derful relations  of  his  own  times,  "  But  to  give  entire  credit 
to  them,  or  altogether  to  disbelieve  them,  is  equally  danger- 
ous, on  account  of  human  weakness.  We  keep  not  always 
within  the  bounds  of  reason,  or  are  masters  of  our  minds. 
Sometimes  we  fall  into  vain  superstitions,  and  sometimes  into 
an  impious  neglect  of  all  religion.  It  is  best  to  be  cautious, 
and  avoid  extremes." 

But  not  only  in  regard  to  war,  but  also  in  forensic  mat- 
ters, superstition  held  her  sway.  We  have  only  to  read  the 
charming  letters  of  Pliny,  at  once  to  perceive  this.  A  friend 
writes  to  him  to  endeavor  to  put  off  the  hearing  of  a  cause, 
because  he  has  had  a  dream  signifying  that  he  shall  not  be 
successful.  Pliny  promises  to  use  his  best  efforts  to  do  so,  as 
he  says, 

"  For  dreams  descend  from  Jove." 

And  he  tells  him,=^  that,  in  the  mean  while,  it  is  very  im- 
portant that  he  should  recollect  whether  his  dreams  have 
generally  represented  things  as  they  afterward  happened,  or 
not ;  and  he  relates  a  case  of  his  own,  in  which  he  won  a 
cause  pleaded  before  some  of  the  most  considerable  lawyers 
of  Rome,  when  his  dream  had  told  him  that  he  should 
lose  it. 

But  he  even  supported  the  more  cruel  fruits  of  superstition. 
The  ancients  believed  that  the  ghosts  of  deceased  persons  were 
propitiated  by  the  effusion  of  human  blood.  Pliny,  therefore, 
tells  his  friend  Maximus,  that  he  was  perfectly  right  in  prom- 
ising a  combat  of  gladiators  to  the  citizens  of  Verona,  on 
the  death  of  his  excellent  wife.  "What  other  spectacle,"  he 
asks,t  "  could  you  have  exhibited  more  proper  to  the  occa- 
sion ?"  He  tells  him,  that  ''the  magnificent  manner  in  which 
you  executed  the  object  of  it,  is  much  to  your  honor  ;  for  a 
greatness  of  soul  is  seen  in  these  smaller  instances,  as  well  as 
in  matters  of  higher  moment ;"  and  he  only  regrets  that  the 
African  panthers,  largely  provided  for  the  purpose,  did  not 
arrive  m  time. 

*■  Pliny's  Letters,  book  i.  p.  42.  t  Book  vi.  p.  367. 


HIS  SUrERSTITIOiN.  317 

He  seems  to  think  it  an  atoning  circumstance  in  the  hfe 
of  tlie  "  har"  Regulus,  that  on  the  death  of  his  son,  he 
caused  all  the  child's  favorite  little  horses,  dogs,  parrots, 
blackbirds,  and  nightingales,  to  be  slain  around  his  funeral 
pile.  Pliny's  story,  as  related  to  him,  of  the  haunted  house 
at  Athens,*  is  interesting  ;  and,  altogether,  we  must  come  to 
the  determination  that  this  eloquent,  judicious,  polite,  and 
most  amiable  man,  in  common  with  most  men  of  his  age, 
possessed  a  mind  tinctured,  in  more  or  less  degree,  as  circum- 
stances guided  him,  with  such  superstitious  belief  as  proceeds 
from  excess  of  reverential  and  tender  feelings. 

Not  in  heathen  minds  only  has  the  love  of  superstition 
found  a  place,  but  in  Christian  also.  The  poetry  of  Pruden- 
tius  shows  us  at  what  an  early  period  (a.  d.  400)  the  Cross 
was  regarded  with  a  kind  of  superstitious  reverence.  In  his 
•'  Hymnus  ante  Somnum,"  he  writes  : 

'•  Fac  cum,  vocante  somno, 
Casturti  petis  cubile, 
Frontem,  locumque  cordis 
Crucis  figura  signet. 
Cnix  pellit  oynne  crimen  : 
Fugjunt  cruceni  tenebrse  ; 

Tali  dicata  signo, 

Mens  fluctuare  nescit." 

And  we  well  know  how  the  same  measure  of  superstition  still 
attaches  to  the  Cross  in  the  estimation  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic church  ;  together  with  the  numberless  legends,  charms,  and 
fables,  all  ancillary  to  superstition,  which  have  been  invented 
or  countenanced  by  the  priests  and  monks  of  that  church. 
We  have  merely  to  read  their  Lives  of  the  Saints,  at  once 
to  be  convinced  of  this  painful  and  degrading  fact. 

And  not  only  among  Roman  Catholics,  but  with  the  Puri- 
tans and  ultra-Protestants,  the  grossest  delusions  have  found 
place.  Witchcraft  was  solemnly  believed.  And  so  largely 
did  this  belief  prevail  among  the  party  mentioned,  that  it  drew 
the  following  trite  censure  from  a  Roman  Catholic  writer  : 
"  So  great  folly  did  then  oppress  the  miserable  world,  that 
Christians  believed  greater  absurdities,  than  could  be  im- 
posed upon  the  heathens."      Even  the  good  Sir   Matthew 

*  Book  vii.  p.  51. 


318  HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

Hale,  though  with  doubt  and  fear,  sentenced  two  women  to 
death  on  a  charge  of  witchcraft ;  and  the  credit  of  putting 
an  end  to  this  delusion  belongs  in  England  to  Archbishop 
Harsnet,  who  was  raised  to  the  See  of  York  by  Charles  the 
First,  in  the  year  1628  :  at  least,  we  may  give  him  the  credit ; 
for  although  the  judgment  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale  was  passed 
after  this  date,  yet  the  wit  and  good  sense  of  the  archbishop 
really  worked  the  gradual  downfall  of  belief  in  witchcraft. 

And  more  than  in  England,  mark  the  horrible  cruelties 
attendant  on  this  absurd  belief  at  Salem  (now  called  Danvers) 
in  the  United  States  of  America  :  in  which  tyrannical  and 
hypocritical  scenes  Dr.  Cotton  Mather,  to  his  eternal  obloquy, 
took  so  conspicuous  a  part :  and  yet  the  doctor  was  a  man 
actually  credited  by  our  own  Baxter.  During  the  prevalence 
of  this  fanaticism,  we  are  told,  twenty  persons  lost  their  lives 
by  the  hands  of  the  executioner,  fifty-five  escaped  death  by 
confessing  themselves  guilty,  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  in 
prison,  and  more  than  two  hundred  others  accused.  * 

And  a  belief  in  witches,  fairies,  and  other  singular  beings, 
is  still  indulged  by  the  common  people.  Addison  says  of  our 
forefathers,  "  There  was  not  a  village  in  England  that  had 
not  a  ghost  in  it;  the  church-yards  were  all  haunted,  every 
large  common  had  a  circle  of  fairies  belonging  to  it,  and  there 
was  scarce  a  shepherd  to  be  met  with  who  had  not  seen  a 
spirit."  And  in  parts  of  England,  in  Ireland,  Scotland,  and 
the  Isle  of  Man,  the  existence  of  witches  and  fairies,  and  the 
power  of  the  evil  eye,  are  fully  credited.  An  extraordinary 
instance  of  this  lately  happened  near  the  Clee  Hill,  in  the 
county  of  Salop.  A  clergyman  returning  homeward  one 
evening  saw  a  wagon  stuck  fast  by  the  road  side.  "  Well, 
what  is  the  matter  ?"  "  The  horses  can  not  stir  it,"  replied 
the  farmer,  "it's  bewitched."  "Who  has  bewitched  it?" 
asked  the  clergyman.  "  Why,  sir,  that  old  woman,"  naming 
a  person  known  to  him.  The  farmer  and  his  man,  when  first 
seen,  were  actually  both  on  their  knees,  with  their  coats  turn- 

*  For  an  account  of  this  delusion,  and  Dr.  Mather's  part  in  it,  see 
"Ecclesiastical  Reminiscences  of  the  United  States,''  by  the  Rev.  Ed- 
ward Waylen  (Straker);  a  book  abounding  with  interesting  matter  on 
the  American  church. 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  311} 

ed,  in  prayer  that  the  spell  might  be  removed,  and  were  just 
about  to  send  a  gift  to  the  old  lady  for  that  purpose  :  when, 
on  the  clergyman  walking  round  the  wagon,  he  found  the 
wheel  fast  in  the  stump  of  a  tree,  the  removal  of  which  by 
an  ax  was  his  instant  advice,  and  on  went  the  wagon  cheer- 
ily enough.*" 

Nearly  about  the  same  time  (1849),  a  wagoner  started 
from  a  farm-house  with  wagon  and  team,  when  lo  and  be- 
hold, before  he  had  gone  many  yards  the  horses  stood  stock 
still,  and  nothing  would  induce  them  to  stir,  no  allurements, 

*  There  is  a  very  good  anecdote  of  a  judge,  who  acquitted  two 
women  who  were  brought  before  him  on  a  charge  of  '"  flying  in  the 
air,"  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no  Act  of  Parliament  to  prevent  it. 
This  of  course  was  done  to  discourage  the  belief  in  witchcraft.  It  is, 
I  think,  in  the  Gloucester  Guide  Books,  for  I  believe  the  judge  was 
.Judge  Powell,  who  lies  in  the  Lady  Chapel  of  Gloucester  Cathedral. 

The  following  handbill  was  actually  exhibited  is  this  century  : 

"  Sold  Here, 

Price  Is.  6d.  in  cloth, 

THE  LIFE  OF  MRS.  PALLISTER, 

OF   PRESTON,  NEAR,   HULL, 

Who  was  a  consistent  Member  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Connection 

upward  of  Fifty-six  Years  ; 

Comprising 

A  Faithful  Account  of  the  Celestial  Phenomena  which  adorned 

her  Shroud  and  CofRn ; 

Witnessed  by  Hundreds  of  Persons  residing  at  Preston,  Hedon,  and  tho 

Neighborhood  ;    and  attested   by  the  real  Names  and  Professions  of 

respectable  Residents. 


In  this  place  in  the  middle  of  the  placard  is  a  view  of  tliis  lying 
wonder.  A  number  of  persons  are  assembled  to  gaze  upon  the  corpse 
in  its  shroud,  on  various  parts  of  which  are  delineated  objects  like 
stars,  throwing  out  rays  in  all  directions  :  Willi  a  cross  of  considerable 
size  on  the  breast,  seemingly  in  a  blaze  of  light.  Q,uery,  Was  the 
whole  a  fabrication  of  a  rascally  publisher,  or  the  contrivance  of  an 
equally  rascally  hypocrite,  who  put  phosphorus  on  the  shroud  ? 
Either  way,  the  speculation  serves  to  show  the  hold  of  superstition, 
in  ordinary  minds,  in  the  19lh  century. 


A  Faithful  Representation  of  the  Wonderful  Figures  which  rested 
upon  the  Shroud  and  Corpse  of  the  late  ]Mrs.  Pallister,  of  Preston,  near 
Hull,  who  was  translated  from  Earth  to  Glory,  Feb.  15,  18.33,  aged 
76  years,  and  who  was  a  consistent  Member  of  Methodist  Conneetioa 
for  57  years. 

From  a  Sketch  taken  on  the  Spot  by  ]Mr.  F.  Hustwick,  of  Hull. 
London  :  Joseph  Noble,  20,  Giltspur-street ;  and  ]Market-place,  Hull." 


320  HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

no  thrashings,  could  move  them.  The  wagoner  went  back 
to  tell  his  master  that  the  horses  were  bewitched.  The 
master  replied,  that  it  was  a  very  bad  job.  A  consultation 
■was  being  held,  v^^ien  in  came  the  boy  running  and  breath- 
less ;  he  had  discovered  the  cause  ;  the  bottle  of  drink  was 
left  behind  ! 

Sir  Walter  Scott  says  of  his  country,  that  such  spells  are 
still  believed  in.  A  lady  of  property  in  Mull,  a  friend  of 
his,  had  a  few  years  since  much  difficulty  in  rescuing  from 
the  superstitious  fury  of  the  people,  an  old  woman  who  used 
a  charm  to  injure  her  neighbor's  cattle.  He  had  it  in  his 
possession,  and  it  consisted  of  feathers,  parings  of  nails,  hair, 
and  such  like  trash,  wrapped  in  a  lump  of  clay.  Persons 
in  rural  districts  in  England  commonly  sell  charms  for  the 
toothache  and  other  pains  ;  and  a  clergyman  found,  on  one 
occasion,  a  young  man  who  was  nearly  blind,  and  who  prac- 
ticed such  things  for  gain,  boiling  herbs  of  all  kinds  on  the 
fire  below,  while  a  poor  woman  was  in  child-labor  in  the 
room  above,  and  every  mystic  syllable  of  incantation  was  to 
her  mind  more  efficacious  than  the  pastor's  prayer. 

In  the  Isle  of  Man  this  belief  is  entertained,  and  a  singular 
trial  took  place  in  one  of  the  courts  lately,  wherein  the  super- 
stitious nature  of  the  minds  of  some  of  the  natives  was  largely 
and  singularly  revealed.  There  too  they  credit  the  existence 
of  fairies,  malignant  and  benignant.  They  have  a  tradition 
that  witches  can  transform  themselves  into  hares,  and  such 
hares  can  only  be  shot  with  a  silver  bullet.  On  the  first  of 
May  they  go  out  upon  the  hills  in  the  evening,  with  great 
shouting  and  blowing  of  horns,  to  scare  away  the  witches  out 
of  the  furze  and  bushes.  They  have  a  prejudice  against 
eating  hares  or  eels.  A  few  years  ago,  a  young  Englishman 
ordered  a  hare  for  dinner.  The  servant  girl  entertained  the 
usual  Manx  horror  aocainst  such  animals.  She  would  not 
even  skin  it  herself.  The  young  man,  knowing  her  fears, 
was  determined  to  play  a  trick.  Just  before  the  hare  wasi 
served  up,  he  managed  to  envelope  it  in  some  degree  with 
spirits  of  wine.  The  poor  girl  brought  it  in,  when  on  the 
moment  of  her  depositing  it  on  the  table  a  bit  of  paper  was' 
lighted,   and   the  hare  suddenly  became  encompassed  with 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  321 

blue  flames  !  The  terror  and  utter  consternation  of  the  poor 
girl  may  well  be  imagined.  The  joke  was  far  too  practical ; 
but  she  afterward  confessed  that  she  was  justly  punished,  and 
would  never  meddle  with  a  hare  again  I 

"A  Manxman,"  says  Robertson,*  "  amid  his  lonely  mount- 
ains, reclines  by  some  romantic  stream,  the  murmurings  of 
which  lull  him  into  a  pleasing  torpor.  Half  slumbering,  he 
sees  a  variety  of  imaginary  beings  which  he  believes  to  be 
real.  Sometimes  they  resemble  his  traditionary  ideas  of 
fairies,  and  sometimes  they  assume  the  appearance  of  his 
friends  and  neighbors.  Presuming  on  these  dreams,  the 
Manx  enthusiast  predicts  some  future  event ;  and  should 
any  thing  similar  occur,  he  fancies  himself  endowed  with  the 
gift  of  prescience,  and  thus  disturbs  his  own  happiness  and 
that  of  others."  The  same  author,  ob.serving  on  the  sombrous 
melancholy  produced  by  solitude  on  an  inert  disposition,  says, 
«'  Hence,  it  seems,  there  are  many  who  labor  under  a  dis- 
ordered imagination  in  this  island  ;  and  who,  from  their 
native  disposition,  giving  way  to  religious  terrors,  imbibe  all 
the  gloomy  tenets  of  Methodism."  Be  this  as  it  may,  there 
are  many  wise,  cheerful,  enlightened  families  on  the  Isle  of 
Man,  and  its  modern  Methodism  is  far  removed  from  that 
ascetic  character  which  once  it  assumed,  although  some  of 
the  elder  kind  of  Methodists  may  still  be  found,  who,  for 
instance,  would  not  eat  a  morsel  of  food  on  a  Sacrament 
Sunday,  until  after  they  had  partaken  of  the  Holy  Supper  in 
the  church. 

But  let  us  come  to  what  may  be  called  Dr.  Johnson's 
superstitions.  It  was  his  care  to  go  in  or  out  at  a  door  or 
passage,  by  a  certain  number  of  steps  from  a  certain  point, 
or  at  least  so  that  either  his  right  or  his  left  foot  (it  was  not 
known  which)  should  constantly  make  the  first  actual  move- 
ment when  he  came  close  to  the  door  or  passage.  When 
he  had  gone  wrong,  in  order  to  achieve  this,  he  would  some- 
times go  back  again,  and  measure  his  distance  with  more 
care.  In  walking  over  a  paved  quadrangle,  he  would  not 
step  on  the  juncture  of  the  stones,  but  carefully  in  the  centre ; 

*  Tour  through  the  Isle  of  Man,  by  David  Robertson,  Esq..  in  1791. 


322  HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

and  in  walking  up  an  accustomed  footway,  lie  would  always 
place  his  hand  on  the  top  of  the  centre  posts,  and  if  he 
omitted  one,  he  would  go  back  and  amend  his  omission. 
There  is  nothing  particular  to  be  noticed  in  this  habit ;  very 
many  persons  do  the  same  kind  of  thing  from  an  orderly,  me- 
thodical manner  into  which  they  have  got,  and  especially  have 
a  trick  of  counting  certain  numbers,  even  or  uneven,  over  and 
over  again  ;  or  counting  trees,  animals,  furniture  in  a  room, 
&c.,  until  they  leave  off  at  a  favorite  number.  It  is  merely 
a  harmless  habit,  which  a  little  reasoning  with  one's  self 
would  soon  correct,  but  which  may  become  annoying  by  its 
increasing  consumption  of  time. 

On  the  question,  however,  concerning  ghosts  and  appari- 
tions, much  more  must  be  said  ;  though  Dr.  Johnson  did  not 
positively  believe  in  either.  He  states  fairly  the  belief  of 
the  credulous,  in  liis  Rasselas.  The  prince  says,  "  If  all 
your  fear  be  of  apparitions,  I  will  promise  you  safety  :  there 
is  no  danger  from  the  dead  :  he  that  is  once  buried  will  be 
geen  no  more." 

"  That  the  dead  are  seen  no  more,"  replied  Tinlac,  "I  will 
not  undertake  to  maintain  against  the  concurrent  and  un- 
varied testimony  of  all  ages,  and  of  all  nations.  There  is 
no  people,  rude  or  learned,  among  whom  apparitions  of  the 
dead  are  not  related  and  believed."  In  this  saying  of  Tin- 
lac we  must  suppose  Johnson's  opinion  to  be  mainly  em- 
bodied, although  it  may  not  be  correct  as  applied  (nor  would 
he  probably  apply  it  thus)  to  all  individuals  of  all  nations,  for 
it  is  materially  softened  by  his  opinions  subsequently  delivered. 

For  on  one  occasion,  when  Mrs.  Williams  was  telling  him 
a  story  of  second-sight  which  had  happened  in  Wales,  and 
he  had  said  that  he  should  like  to  have  some  instances  of 
that  faculty  well  authenticated,  he  further  observed,  "  that 
we  could  have  no  certainty  of  the  truth  of  supernatural  ap- 
pearances, unless  something  was  told  us  which  we  could  nof 
know  by  ordinary  means,  or  something  done  which  could  not 
be  done  but  by  supernatural  power  ;  that  Pharaoh  in  reason 
and  justice  required  such  evidence  from  Moses ;  nay,  that 
our  Saviour  said,  '  If  I  had  not  done  among  them  the  works 
which  none  other  man  did,  they  had  not  had  sin.'" 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  323 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  Johnson  loved  an  argument, 
and  especially  aimed  to  detect  its  fallacy  ;  therefore,  because 
he  sometimes  refutes  the  reasoning  of  a  disbeliever  in  ghosts, 
we  must  not  rush  to  the  conclusion  that  he  himself  believed 
in  them.  Bos  well  once  said  to  him,  "  There  is  this  objection 
made  against  the  truth  of  ghosts  appearing ;  that  if  they  are 
in  a  state  of  happiness,  it  would  be  a  punishment  to  them  to 
return  to  this  world  ;  and  if  they  are  in  a  state  of  misery,  it 
would  be  giving  them  a  respite."  Johnson  replied,  "  Why, 
sir,  as  the  happiness  or  misery  of  embodied  spirits  (he  must 
mean  disembodied)  does  not  depend  upon  place,  but  is  intel- 
lectual, we  can  not  say  that  they  are  less  happy  or  less  mis- 
erable, by  appearing  upon  earth."  He  might  have  reminded 
Boswell,  that  departed  spirits  have  not  yet  reached  their  final 
destiny,  and  thus  his  idea  would  be  strengthened,  that  their 
visits  to  this  earth  might  be  so  ordered  by  the  Disposer  of  all 
events,  as  neither  to  diminish  their  happiness  or  woe.  Prob- 
ably this  is  intimated,  although  not  positively  stated. 

Croker  is  very  earnest  in  his  observations  against  the  arp- 
pearances  of  ghosts,  and  insists  that  there  is  no  satisfactory 
evidence  of  their  appearance.  Johnson,  talking  of  ghosts, 
said,  that  he  knew  one  friend,  who  was  an  honest  and  sensi- 
ble man,  who  told  him  he  had  seen  a  ghost — old  Mr.  Cave, 
the  printer,  at  St.  John's  Gate.  He  said  Mr.  Cave  did  not 
like  to  talk  of  it,  and  seemed  to  be  in  great  horror  whenever 
it  was  mentioned.  Boswell  asked,  "  Pray,  sir,  what  did  he 
say  was  the  appearance  ?"  Johnson  answered,  "  Why,  sir, 
something  of  a  shadowy  being." 

Johnson  repeated  this  at  another  time,  and  also  Goldsmith 
said,  that  he  was  assured  by  his  brother,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gold- 
smith, that  he  had  seen  one.  The  story  of  the  ghost  of  the 
notorious  Parson  Ford  having  appeared  is  also  related,  but  cer- 
tainly we  have  no  substantial  evidence  in  either  of  these  cases. 

Of  the  power  of  the  second-sight  some  strong  instances 
were  related  to  Dr.  Johnson,  M'Quarrie,  an  ancient  Scot- 
tish chieftain,  intelligent,  polite,  and  much  a  man  of  the  world, 
told  him,  that  he  had  gone  to  Edinburgh,  and  taken  a  man- 
servant along  with  him.  An  old  woman  who  was  in  the 
house  said  one  day,  "  M'Quarrie  will  be  at  home  to-morrow. 


324  HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

and  will  bring  two  gentlemen  witli  him  :"  and  she  said  she 
saw  his  servant  return  in  red  and  green.  He  did  come  home 
next  day.  He  had  two  gentlemen  with  him,  and  his  servant 
had  a  new  red  and  green  livery,  which  M'Quarrie  had  bought 
for  him  at  Edinburgh,  upon  a  sudden  thought,  not  having 
the  least  intention  when  he  left  home  to  put  his  servant  in 
livery  :  so  that  the  old  woman  could  not  have  heard  any 
previous  mention  of  it. 

Johnson  had  many  temptations  to  believe  in  ghosts  and 
apparitions,  and  he  would,  in  common  with  us  all,  have  glad- 
ly done  so,  but  he  never  could  get  the  requisite  evidence,  and, 
unlike  John  Wesley,  he  must  have  that  clear  and  undoubted. 
I  say,  in  common  with  us  all,  for  who  would  not  like  the 
privilege  of  a  visit  from  a  departed  friend  :  and  who  need 
feel  terror  even  from  the  ghost  of  a  wicked  man  ?  How  de- 
spairingly, yet  longingly,  the  poet  cries, 

"I  look  for  ghosts  :  but  none  will  force 
Their  way  to  me — 'tis  falsely  said. 
That  there  was  ever  intercourse 
Between  the  living  and  the  dead : 
For  surely  then  I  should  have  sight 
Of  him  I  wait  for  day  and  night, 
With  love  and  longings  infinite!" 

How  beautifully  doth  Crabbe  apostrophize  : 

"  Dear,  happy  shade  !  companion  of  the  good, 
The  just,  the  pure,  do  T  on  thee  intrude  ? 
Art  not  thou  come  my  spirit  to  improve, 
To  form,  instruct,  and  fit  me  for  thy  love  : 
And,  as  in  love  we  parted,  to  restore 
The  blessing  lost,  and  then  to  part  no  more  ?" 

Oh,  may  we  not  say,  that  such  a  blessing  as  this  would 
serve  too  much  to  reconcile  us  to  the  present  life  ;  for  what 
can  stimulate  more  our  longing  to  depart,  than,  after  union 
with  Christ,  the  hope  that  union  with  former  friends  is  one 
of  the  chief  happinesses  of  heaven.  No,  perhaps  we  dare 
not  go  beyond  the  source  of  Southey's  consolation  : 

"  Meantime  I  soothe 
The  deep  regret  of  nature,  with  belief, 
0  Edmund  !  that  thine  eye's  celestial  ken 
Pervades  me  now,  marking  with  no  mean  joy, 
The  movements  of  a  heart  that  loved  thee  well." 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  323 

Let  us  only  assure  ourselves  of  this  belief,  this  union  and 
sympathy  of  departed  ones,  and  how  much  alleviation  of  in- 
tensest  sorrow  is  gained. 

Johnson,  we  say,  had  temptations  to  believe  in  ghosts  and 
apparitions ;  first  from  the  seeming  authenticity  of  some 
stories  related  to  him  :  secondly,  from  the  belief  of  other  per- 
sons, especially  of  Boswell,  who  said  of  Johnson,  "  He  is  only 
willing  to  believe  ;  I  do  believe  :  and  thirdly,  from  the  de- 
sire of  his  own  mind,  accustomed  as  it  was  to  hold  in  constant 
view  the  Christian  doctrines  connected  with  supernatural 
belief.  Thus,  of  apparitions  he  observed,  "  A  total  disbelief 
of  them  is  adverse  to  the  opinion  of  the  existence  of  the  soul 
between  death  and  the  last  day ;  the  question  simply  is, 
whether  departed  spirits  ever  have  the  power  of  making  them- 
selves perceptible  to  us  :  a  man  who  thinks  he  has  seen  an 
apparition  can  only  be  convinced  himself;  his  authority  will 
not  convince  another  :  and  his  conviction,  if  rational,  must 
be  founded  on  being  told  something  which  can  not  be  known 
but  by  supernatural  means." 

When  Lord  Lyttelton's  vision,  the  prediction  of  the  time 
of  his  death,  with  its  exact  fulfillment,  was  mentioned,  he 
said,  "It  is  the  most  extraordinary  thing  that  has  happened 
in  my  day.  I  heard  it  with  my  own  ears,  from  his  uncle, 
Lord  Westcote.  I  am  so  glad  to  have  every  evidence  of  the 
spiritual  tvorld,  that  I  am  ivilling  to  believe  it.''^ 

Here  we  have  the  main  reason  for  his  minute  and  constant 
inquiries  into  the  evidence  for  the  appearance  of  ghosts,  and 
for  the  authenticity  of  the  second-sight  in  Scotland.      Yet 

*  Johnson,  in  his  Life  of  the  Earl  of  Roscommon,  after  relating  how 
the  earl,  when  a  boy,  in  the  middle  of  his  play  at  Caen,  in  Normandy, 
cried  out,  "  My  father  is  dead,"  and  his  words  proved  to  be  true  :  says, 
"  Here  is  the  relation  of  a  fact  given  by  a  man  (Mr.  Knolles)  who  had 
no  interest  to  deceive,  and  who  could  not  be  deceived  himself;  and 
here  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  miracle  which  produces  no  effect.  The 
order  of  nature  is  interrupted  to  discover  not  a  future,  but  only  a  dis- 
tant event,  the  knowledge  of  which  is  of  no  use  to  him  to  whom  it  is 
revealed.  Between  these  difficulties  what  way  shall  be  found  ?  Is 
reason  or  testimony  to  be  rejected  ?  I  believe  what  Osborne  says  of 
an  appearance  of  sanctity  may  be  applied  to  such  impulses  or  anticipa- 
tions as  this  :  Do  not  wholly  slight  than,  because  they  may  be  true  ;  but  do 
not  easily  trust  them,  because  they  may  be  false. '''' 


326  HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

what  was  the  result  ?  With  all  the  willingness  to  believe, 
he  never  could  obtain  sufficient  evidence.  After  visiting  a 
people  remarkable  for  their  implicit  belief  in  these  things, 
and  with  many  instances  adduced  before  him,  he  still  says,* 
as  the  end  of  his  Scottish  inquiries,  "  Strong  reasons  for 
incredulity  will  readily  occur.  This  faculty  of  seeing  things 
out  of  sight  is  local,  and  commonly  useless.  It  is  a  breach 
of  the  common  order  of  things,  without  any  visible  reason, 
or  perceptible  benefit.  It  is  ascribed  only  to  a  people  very 
little  enlightened :  and  among  them,  for  the  most  part,  to  the 
mean  and  ignorant."  Again,  "  There  is  against  it,  the 
seeming  analogy  of  things  confusedly  seen,  and  little  under- 
stood :  and  for  it,  the  indistinct  cry  of  national  persuasion, 
which  may  be  perhaps  resolved  at  last  into  prejudice  and 
tradition.  I  never  could  advance  my  curiosity  to  conviction : 
hut  came  aivay  at  last  only  ivilli7ig  to  believed  This,  be 
it  recollected,  is  not  Boswell's  reporting  ;  these  words  are 
from  his  own  Journal  :  and  therefore,  the  idle  charge  of 
superstition,  as  it  has  been  advanced  against  him,  is  totally 
unfounded.  Had  he  ever  been  inclined  to  superstition,  then 
was  the  time  for  its  indulffence. 

In  this  same  "  Journal,"  he  also  says,  that  the  boatmen 
expected  no  good  event  of  one  of  his  voyages,  for  one  of  them 
declared  he  heard  the  cry  of  an  English  ghost.  "  This  omen 
I  was  not  told  till  after  our  return,  and  therefore  can  not 
claim  the  degnity  of  despi&ing  it.'' 

His  language  in  England  always  was  directed  to  the  effect 
that  the  matter  was  undecided.  When  talking  of  Wesley's 
credulity  about  the  Newcastle  ghost,  he  said,  "  Charles,  who 
is  a  more  stationary  man,  does  not  believe  the  story.  I  am 
sorry  that  John  did  not  take  more  pains  to  inquire  into  the 
evidence  for  it."  Miss  Seward  (with  an  incredulous  smile) : 
"  What,  sir  I  about  a  ghost  ?"  "  Yes,  madam,"  rephed 
Johnson  ;  "  this  is  a  question  which  after  five  thousand  years 
is  yet  undecided  ;  a  question,  whether  in  theology  or  philoso- 
phy, one  of  the  most  important  that  can  come  before  the 
human  understanding."  It  is  important,  inasmuch  as  men 
would  have  ocular  demonstration  of  the  truth  of  a  future  life ; 
*  In  his  own  Journal,  p.  252. 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  327 

but  we  are  assured  that  we  have  sufficient  evidence,  without 
a  fulfillment  of  the  rich  man's  request  to  Abraham.  John- 
son never  could  bear  flippancy  of  either  thought  or  speech  ; 
sometimes  he  liked  to  establish  a  paradox  ;  at  all  events  he 
would  magnify  the  importance  of  a  matter  before  one  who 
seemed  willing  to  dismiss  it  as  unworthy  of  any  investigation 
or  reflection  at  all.  At  another  time  he  repeated  nearly  the 
same  words,  with  this  addition,  "  All  argument  is  against  it," 
against  the  appearance  of  the  spirit  of  any  person  after  death 
— "  but  all  belief  is  for  it." 

He  expressed  great  indignation  at  the  imposture  of  the  Cock- 
lane  ghost,  and  related,  with  much  satisfaction,  how  he  had 
assisted  in  the  detection  of  the  cheat,  in  which  Dr.  Douglas, 
the  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  and  great  detector  of  impostures, 
aided  him.  He  was  very  angry  also  with  Lord  Kames,  for 
misrepresenting  Clarendon's  account  of  the  appearance  of  Sir 
George  Villiers's  ghost,  as  if  Clarendon  were  weakly  credu- 
lous ;  when  the  fact  is,  that  Clarendon  only  says  that  the 
story  was  upon  a  better  foundation  of  credit  than  usually  such 
discourses  are  founded  upon. 

Another  conversation  discloses  Dr.  Johnson's  caution. 
When  speaking  of  belief  in  ghosts,  he  said,  "  Sir,  I  make  a 
distinction  between  what  a  man  may  experience  by  the  mere 
strength  of  his  imagination,  and  ivhat  imagination  can  not 
jDOSsibly  produce.  Thus,  suppose  I  should  think  that  I  saw 
a  form,  and  heard  a  voice  cry,  '  Johnson,  you  are  a  very 
wicked  fellow,  and  unless  you  repent  you  will  certainly  be 
punished  ;'  my  own  unworthiness  is  so  deeply  impressed  upon 
my  mind,  that  I  might  imagine  I  thus  saw  and  heard,  and 
therefore  /  should  7iot  believe  that  an  external  communication 
had  been  made  to  me.  But  if  a  form  should  appear,  and  a 
voice  should  tell  me  that  a  particular  man  had  died  at  a 
particular  place  and  a  particular  hour,  a  fact  which  I  had 
no  apprehension  of,  nor  any  means  of  knowing,  and  this  fact, 
with  all  its  circumstances,  should  afterward  be  unquestionably 
proved,  I  should  in  that  case  be  persuaded  that  I  had  super- 
natural intelligence  imparted  to  me." 

Dr.  Johnson  draws  a  right  distinction  here.      Physiciims 
will  tell  us  how  much   the   theory   of  apparitions,  spectral 


328  HIS  SlJPERSTITIOxN. 

illusions,  and  supernatural  voices,  depends  upon  a  disordered 
imagination,  in  which  things  past  are  confounded  with  those 
that  are  present.  "A  person  of  vivid  conception,"  says  Dr. 
George  Moore, =*  "  may  persuade  himself  out  of  his  senses, 
merely  because  his  mind  is  too  intently  occupied  to  allow 
him  properly  to  employ  them.  Distinct  perception  requires 
attention  and  the  adjustment  of  the  organs  of  sense;  but  the 
mind  that  is  too  active  can  not  attend.  Of  course  therefore 
the  faculty  of  comparison  is  so  far  suspended  ;  and  as  by  this 
faculty  we  distinguish  ideas  from  realities,  and  object  from 
object,  a  thing  imagined  must,  under  these  circumstances, 
have  all  the  force  of  a  reality.  Poets  and  lunatics  respect- 
ively exemplify  this  remark.  An  imagination  that  deludes 
us  by  the  strength  of  remembered  impressions  is  poetical, 
Avhen  transient  and  manageable,  but  when  uncontrollable 
and  permanent,  it  is  madness." 

We  know  well  enough  that  our  minds,  by  an  act  of  vol- 
untary recollection,  can  set  before  us  the  appearance  in  face 
and  form,  and  dress,  of  those  who  are  absent ;  and  some- 
times this  appearance  reproduced  by  the  mind  will  so  ob- 
trude itself  on  the  bodily  sense,  as  to  make  us  actually  be- 
hold the  recollected  person  as  though  walking,  as  it  were,  by 
our  side.  Then  we  think  we  see  an  apparition,  although 
such  appearance  is  created  only  by  disorder  of  the  mind, 
which  suspends  the  power  of  the  senses.  Dr.  Hibbert  men- 
tions the  case  of  a  gentleman,  who,  having  been  told  of  the 
sudden  death  of  a  friend,  saw  him  distinctly  when  he  walked 
out  in  the  evening.  He  was  not  in  his  usual  dress,  but  in  a 
coat  of  a  different  color,  which  he  had  left  off  wearing  for 
some  months.  His  friend  could  even  remark  a  figured  vest 
which  he  had  worn  about  the  same  time,  also  a  colored  silk 
handkerchief  around  his  neck,  in  which  he  had  used  to  see 
him  in  the  morning.  Thus  he  beheld  him,  not  dressed,  as 
he  might  have  been,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  but  as  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  see  him  months  before.  And  often  a 
number  of  men  if  strong  impressions  have  been  made  on  their 
minds,  and  prepossessed  their  wills,  may  imagine  that  they 

*  The  Power  of  the  Soul  over  the  Body,  by  George  Moore,  M.D. 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  32Q 

together  behold  the  form  of  a  departed  one.  A  whole  ship's 
crew  were  thrown  into  consternation  by  the  ghost  of  the  cook 
who  had  died  a  few  days  before.  He  was  distinctly  seen  by 
them  all,  walking  on  the  water  with  a  peculiar  gait  by 
which  he  was  distinguished,  one  of  his  legs  being  shorter 
than  another.  The  cook,  so  plainly  recognized,  was  only  a 
piece  of  old  wreck.  * 


*  So  much  influence  also  has  the  state  of  the  body  over  the  mind, 
that  often  physical  disease  leads  to  mental  wandering.  A  Fellow  of  a 
College  in  Oxford  used  to  be  terrified  by  the  appearance  of  a  bloody 
head  presented  before  his  eyes.  He  consulted  a  physician,  by  whom 
he  was  bled  :  and  medicine  being  administered,  he  lost  sight  of  the 
spectre  for  a  while.  But  it  returned  ;  and  at  last,  the  man  having 
found  out  the  cause  of  this  appearance,  namely,  a  flow  of  blood  to  his 
own  head,  whenever  it  occurred  always  resorted  to  bleeding.  As  the 
blood  departed  from  his  veins,  so  the  image  of  the  bloody  head  van- 
ished. 

A  story  may  be  related  here,  to  show  how  readily  some  persons  are 
inclined  to  superstition.  In  the  Life  of  Mrs.  Fletcher,  of  Madeley  (p. 
363),  we  find  the  following  entry  in  her  journal :  "  The  other  day  brother 
Tranter  preached  in  my  room  very  profitably,  and  told  vis  afterward  a 
remarkable  answer  to  prayer.  Mr.  R.  Crowther  and  his  wife  were 
going  to  their  circuit  in  a  borrow^ed  gig.  They  came  to  the  house  of 
a  pious  man  and  woman,  accustomed  to  receive  the  messengers  of 
Jesus  Christ.  There  were  some  persecuting  spirits  in  the  place.  In 
the  night,  the  man  and  his  wife  found  they  could  not  sleep,  and  said 
one  to  the  other,  "  I  feel  a  great  weight  on  my  mind,  perhaps  some  hurt 
is  doing  to  the  gig.^  They  got  up  and  went  out.  They  found  one 
wheel  was  gone.  They  looked  all  about,  but  could  not  find  it.  They 
returned  into  the  house,  and  went  to  prayers,  laying  before  the  Lord  the 
difficulty  Mr.  Crowther  would  be  in.  At  last  one  of  them  said,  '  It  comes 
to  my  mind  they  have  carried  it  to  such  a  place  (about  two  miles  ofl")  and 
thx-own  it  into  the  swamp.'  The  other  said,  '  Let  us  go  and  see.' 
About  one  o'clock  they  set  off'.  When  they  came  to  the  place,  which 
was  full  of  water  and  mud,  and  covered  with  rushes,  they  looked  about, 
but  could  see  nothing  of  the  wheel.  They  then  saw  a  large  stick ; 
upon  which  the  man  said,  '  Perhaps  on  this  stick  they  carried  it ;  let  us 
try  again.'  He  then  took  up  the  stick  and  groped  in  the  mud.  Pres- 
ently he  felt  the  wheel.  They  got  it  out,  brought  it  home,  and  put  it 
on  to  the  gig." 

The  above  is  set  off"  as  a  miracle  !  but  sober  persons  will  see  nothing 
in  it  beyond  natural  sense  and  action.  The  man  could  not  sleep,  which 
is  often  the  case  after  the  excitement  of  preaching,  for  the  brain  be- 
comes heated.  They  knew  that  persons  probably  w^ould  like  to  play 
them  a  trick.     The  only  portion  of  their  property  exposed  was  the  gig ; 


330  HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

Be  not  superstitious,  but  believing-.  Johnson  could  not 
argue  himself  into  cognizance  of  a  ghost ;  yet  he  could  say 
that  all  belief  was  on  its  side.  Wise  and  discreet  modern 
writers  have  asserted  their  belief  in  the  possibility  of  the  ex- 
istence of  ghosts  and  spirits,  and  their  belief  has  been  the 
more  firmly  grounded  because  they  have  known  how  to 
separate  and  distinguish  the  real  truth  of  the  matter  from 
the  countless  counterfeits  that  surround  it.  "  To  pull  the 
old  woman  out  of  our  hearts,"  as  Persius  expresses  it,  is 
absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  substantiate  that  belief  in 
the  appearance  of  ghosts  which  is  consistent  with  the 
dictates  of  reason  and  religion.  It  is  not  because  an  old 
withered  oak  bough,  illumined  by  the  whitening  moonbeam, 
has  been  taken  for  a  ghost,  and  scared  the  country  people 
from  a  certain  footpath,  and  then  has  been  found  out  to  be 
only  the  bough  after  all,  that  therefore  our  faith  should  be 
turned  aside  from  the  real  appearance  ;  or  because  villages 
have  been  frightened  by  a  white  sheet,  therefore  the  reality 
should  cease  with  the  imposture.  There  may  be  the  real 
thing  after  all,  and  in  our  common  belief  of  religion,  we 
credit  far  harder  matters  than  this.  "  For  my  own  part," 
writes  the  wise  and  cautious  Addison,  "  I  am  apt  to  join  in 
opinion  with  those  who  believe  that  all  the  regions  of  nature 
swarm  with  spirits ;  and  that  we  have  multitudes  of  specta- 
tors in  all  our  actions,  when  we  think  ourselves  most  alone. 
But,  instead  of  terrifying  myself  with  such  a  notion,  I  am 
wonderfully  pleased  to  think  that  I  am  always  engaged  with 
such  an  innumerable  society,  in  searching  out  the  wonders 
of  creation,  and  joining  in  the  same  concert  of  praise  and 
adoration." 

Milton  has  finely  described  this  mixed  communion  of  men 
and  spirits  in  Paradise  ;   and  had,  doubtless,  his  eye  upon  a 


hence  their  first  thoughts  were  turned  to  it.  They  get  up,  and  find 
the  wheel  gone.  The  well-known  swamp  is  the  most  probable  place 
of  its  destination.  This  occurs  to  them.  They  find  a  large  stick,  the 
very  thing  suited  to  carrying  off  the  wheel.  On  this  evidence,  they  of 
course  search  the  mud  and  find  the  wheel.  There  might  be  a  very 
offensive  conceit  in  calling  this  a  miracle,  though,  doubtless,  it  may 
have  been  the  innocent  belief  of  a  superstitious  mind. 


HIS  SUPERSTITION.  331 

verse  in  old  Hesiod,  which  is  almost,  word  for  word,  the  same 
with  his  third  line  in  the  following  passage : 

"Nor  think  thoufrh  men  were  none, 
That  Heaven  would  want  spectators,  God  want  praise: 
Millions  of  spiritual  creatures  walk  the  earth, 
Unseen,  both  when  we  wake  and  when  we  sleep : 
All  these  with  ceaseless  praise  his  works  behold, 
Both  day  and  night." 

Now,  if  spirits  of  any  kind  be  around  us,  as  we  have  Scrip- 
tural reason  to  believe  that  angels  actually  are,  why  should 
not  those  that  have  left  human  bodies  be  permitted  to  be 
present  ?  Angels  have  been  seen  on  the  earth — we  see  them 
not  now;  spirits  have  been  recalled  from  Paradise,  and  re- 
united to  human  bodies,  though  there  be  no  necessity  now  of 
such  miracle :  the  matter  seems  to  narrow  itself  into  the 
question,  simply,  ■whether  the  human  eye  is  alloiued  at  any 
time  to  behold  a  $>inrit  ?  for  we  may  acknowledge  the  pos- 
sibility or  probability"  of  the  presence  of  departed  spirits,  and 
yet  deny  the  permission  of  seeing  them. 

A  writer  of  modern  date  (1814),  who  has  collected  a 
number  of  stories  of  ghosts  and  hobgoblins,  &c.,  which  he 
proves  to  be  of  human  fabrication,  and  the  intention  of  whose 
book  is  to  put  weak  and  superstitious  people  on  their  guard, 
makes  this  serious  statement  in  his  Preface  :  "  Though  I  can- 
didly acknowledge  to  have  received  great  pleasure  in  forming 
the  collection,  I  would  by  no  means  wish  it  to  be  imagined 
that  I  am  skeptical  in  my  opinions,  or  entirely  disbelieve  and 
set  my  face  against  all  apparitional  record.  No  ;  I  do  be- 
lieve that,  for  certain  purposes,  and  on  certain  and  all-wise 
occasions,  such  things  are,  and  liave  been  permitted  by  the 
Almighty ;  but  by  no  means  do  I  believe  they  are  suffered 
to  appear  half  so  frequently  as  our  modern  ghost-mongers 
manufacture  them."  These  are  the  words  of  an  unprejudiced 
mind  in  the  cause  ;  or  if  prejudice  did  exist,  it  would  seem 
to  have  been  such  as  militated  against  belief  of  this  super- 
natural exhibition.  He  says  again,  in  another  part  of  his 
work  :  "  There  are  some  who  are  ghost-mad,  and  terrify 
themselves,  because  the  Scripture  has  mentioned  the  appear- 
ance of  ghosts.     I  shall  not  dispute,  but,  by  the  power  of 


332  HIS  SUPERSTITION. 

God,  an  incorporeal  being  may  be  visible  to  human  eyes : 
but  then,  an  all-wise  Providence  would  not  have  recourse  to 
a  preternatural  effect  but  on  some  important  occasion." 

With  the  knowledge  that  persons  may  certainly  be  de- 
ceived by  visions,  there  is  a  difficulty  in  a  man's  obtaining 
credit  for  having  seen  a  ghost,  let  the  evidence  to  himself  be 
ever  so  irrefragable.  For  this,  and  other  plain  reasons,  it 
must  be  very  wicked  to  personate  a  ghost.  It  is  a  solemn 
matter.  Job  saw  a  spirit ;  there  is  the  account  of  the  witch 
of  Endor  ;  and  at  our  Lord's  resurrection,  the  bodies  of  saints 
came  out  of  the  graves,  and  their  spirits  became  reunited 
with  them.  This  latter  instance  is  recorded  by  one  Evan- 
gelist only  ;  but  there  is  no  evading  it,  for  it  is  in  all  the 
ancient  MSS.  Whether  they  remained  on  earth,  or  ascend- 
ed with  our  Lord,  and  are  alluded  to  as  "  the  just  men  made 
perfect,"  is  quite  immaterial. 

Whatever  our  own  opinions  may  be,  it  is  a  "foolish  no- 
tion," as  Boswell  says,  to  suppose  that  Johnson  was  weakly 
credulous  on  this  subject  of  the  appearance  of  departed  spirits. 
Johnson  was  not  superstitious.  The  article  in  the  "  Rambler" 
on  Superstition  andRehgion  (No.  44)  proves  this  :  for  although 
it  was  not  written  by  Johnson  himself,  but  by  Mrs.  Carter, 
it  met  with  his  high  approbation.  Mrs.  Piozzi  says,  "  The 
papers  contributed  by  Mrs.  Carter  had  much  of  Johnson's 
esteem,  though  he  always  blamed  me  for  preferring  the  letter, 
signed  Chariossa  (No.  100),  to  the  allegory  (No.  44),  where 
religion  and  superstition  are  indeed  masterly  delineated." 
Mrs.  Carter  was  a  woman  of  superior  talent,  of  high  church 
principles,  and  the  friend  of  Hannah  Moore. 

The  matter  may  be  concluded  with  the  observation,  that 
although  we  may  have  no  sufficient  human  testimony  in  the 
affirmative,  yet  that  we  have  Scriptural  proof  of  the  reappear- 
ance of  departed  spirits  on  the  earth  :  and  no  considerate 
man  can  say,  that  it  may  not  please  God,  for  some  beneficent 
purpose,  to  exert  this  power  on  fitting  occasions,  again  and 
again. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

EPITAPHS. 

The  writing  of  Epitaphs  is  an  ancient  and  a  good  custom. 
It  serves  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  the  departed,  to  in- 
struct the  living,  and  to  fill  us  with  a  desire  of  posthumous 
fame,  of  at  least  a  local  character.  Let  us  cordially  agree 
in  the  sentiment  of  the  Roman  poet, 

"  Et  tumulum  facite,  et  tumulo  superaddite  carmen." 

"  It  is  hard  to  make  an  epitaph,"  writes  Dr.  Johnson  to 
David  Garrick  :  and  when  a  man  tells  us  of  the  difficulty 
in  doing  a  thing,  or  taunts  us  with  the  easiness  of  finding 
fault,  we  like  to  see  that  man  putting  us  in  the  right  way. 
Now,  this  Dr.  Johnson  has  done ;  for  he  has  deliberately 
written  an  Essay  on  Epitaphs,  wherein  he  finds  fault  with 
some  of  this  kind  of  inscriptions,  and  gives  praise  to  others. 

That  the  tomb  of  the  good  man  should  somewhat  serve  to 
supply  the  want  of  his  presence  is,  in  his  view,  the  first  in- 
tention of  epitaphs  :  and  those  epitaphs  are  most  perfect 
which  set  virtue  in  the  strongest  light.  At  the  same  time, 
it  is  the  sort  of  mediocre  class  of  men  whose  memories  re- 
quire the  longest  and  most  studied  epitaphs, =^  while  the  first- 

*  Dr.  Watts  commemorated  Mather  in  an  epitaph  of  not  less  than 
one  hundred  and  eleven  lines  !  even  including  "  the  tallness  of  his  stat- 
ure" among  the  good  qualities  of  the  deceased.  Wesley's  epitaph  is 
quite  a  vain  work.  Lord  Lyttelton,  who  would  have  no  epitaph  on 
his  own  tombstone,  wrote  a  long  one  for  the  monument  of  Sir  James 
Macdonald;  and  in  the  17th  and  18th  centuries,  the  epitaphs  on  divines 
(especially  these  by  Dr.  Friend)  are  noted  for  their  diffusiveness. 
Burke  was  rather  in  favor  of  long  epitaphs ;  for,  he  said.  "  every  thing 
short  is  apt  to  be  general,  and  as  well  fitted  for  one  great  public  man 
as  another." 

Dr.  Burney  tells  us,  that  Johnson  said,  "The  writer  of  an  epitaph 
should  not  be  considered  as  saying  nothing  but  what  is  strictly  true. 
Allowance  must  be  made  for  some  degree  of  exaggerated  praise." 
His  idea  of  the  duties  of  a  biographer  may  illustrate  what  he  means. 


334  EPITAFHS. 

rate  heroes,  military,  literary,  or  scientific,  need  have  but 
their  names  inscribed,  and  all  that  has  made  those  names 
immortal  is  at  once  recognized.  Shakspeare,  Milton,  Sm 
Isaac  Newton,  Marlborough,  demand  no  long  tale  to  tell 
you  who  they  were.  This  simplicity  will  not  do  for  the 
tombs  of  men  "raised  to  reputation  by  accident  or  caprice," 
or  the  inscription  will  soon  require  an  interpreter,  and,  per- 
haps, as  effectually  as  curiously,  puzzle  the  prying  ones  of 
posterity.  Next  in  dignity  to  the  bare  name,  is  a  short 
character,  simple  and  unadorned,  such  as,  Isaacus  Newtoni^s, 
Naturcz  Legibus  investigatis,  hie  qidescit.'^ 

"  If  a  man,"  he  said,  "  is  to  write  a  Panegyric,  he  may  keep  vices  out 
of  sight ;  but  if  he  professes  to  write  a  Life^  he  must  represent  it  really 
as  it  was." 

In  the  Gentleman'' s  Magazine  for  1756,  p.  382,  &e.  there  is  an  ar- 
ticle on  a  new  species  of  epitaphs :  in  which  it  is  proposed  that  the 
ao-es  of  deceased  persons  should  be  reckoned  according  to  the  manner 
in  which  they  have  improved  or  abused  the  time  allotted  them  in  their 
lives.  For  instance,  "  Here  lies  Isaac  Da  Costa,  a  convert  from  Juda- 
ism, aged  sixty-four.  He  was  born  and  christened  in  his  sixty-first 
year,  and  died  in  the  true  faith  in  the  third  year  of  his  age." 

*  See   Gentleman^ s  Magazine,  1740,  p.  594.     The  couplet  on  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  may  be  mentioned  here,  however  well  known  : 
"  Nature  and  Natui*e's  laws  lay  hid  in  night, 
God  said,  '  Let  Newton  be  !'  and  all  was  light !" 
In  the  chapel  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  stands,  as  you  enter 
the  vestibule,  a  very  fine  statue  of  Isaac  Newton,  by  Roubillac,  with 
the  following  line  on  the  pedestal, 

"  Qui  genus  humanum  ingenio  superavit." 
In  the  same  place  is  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  Roger  Cotes,  of 
Trinity  College,  a  celebrated  mathematician,  who  died  young  ;  but 
young  as  he  was,  he  bid  fair  to  approach  nearer  to  Newton  than  any 
other  English  mathematician.  His  epitaph  is  short,  written  by  Beattey 
in  his  happiest  style ;  this  the  conclusion,  and  we  mark  the  beauty  and 
force  of  the  repetition  in  the  last  line, 

"Pauca  quidem  sui  Ingenii,  Pignora  reliquit, 
Sed  egregia,  sed  admiranda!" 
Some  of  the  Roman  epitaphs  were  very  short.     This  is  Ovid's;  and 
it  fulfills  Dr.  Johnson's  idea  : 

"  Ovidianus  .  Poeta  .  hie  .  quiescit." 
Many  of  them  are  remarkable  for  their  pathos  and  simplicity,  chiefly 
on  the  death  of  children  and  near  relations.     Here  is  one  : 

"D.  M.  S. 
"  Plaetoriae  .  Antiochidse  .  Rarissimaj  FcominaB  .  vix  .  ann  .  XXVI. 


EPITAPHS.  33.3 

Dr.  Johnson  thought  rightly  that  we  should  "  exclude  from 
our  epitaphs  all  such  allusions  as  are  contrary  to  the  doctrines 
for  the  propagation  of  which  the  churches  are  erected:" 
hence  the  epitaph  on  Cowley,  wherein  the  divinities  (Muses) 
that  favored  him  in  life  are  besought  to  watch  over  his  tomb, 
he  condemned  as  "  uninstructive  and  unaffecting,"  as  "  too 
ludicrous  for  reverence  or  grief,  for  Christianity  and  a  tem- 
ple." The  designs  and  decorations,  also,  of  monuments 
ought  to  be  in  strict  character  with  the  solemnity  of  the  place  : 
hence  it  is  not  easy  "  to  imagine  a  greater  absurdity  than  that 
of  gracing  the  walls  of  a  Christian  temple  with  the  fig- 
ure of  Mars  leading  a  hero  to  battle,  or  Cupids  sporting  round 
a  virgin." 

He  gives  us  two  Greek  inscriptions  as  a  pattern  ;  and  in 
his  remarks  on  these  we  discover  his  usual  non-respect  of 
persons,  and  his  regard  for  that  sentiment  which  animated 
his  own  course,  showing,  that  "  virtue  is  impracticable  in  no 
condition"  of  poverty,  of  affliction,  of  slavery. 

Of  Christian  epitaphs,  he  thought  that  the  well-known 
one — 

"  Orate  pro  anima — miserrimi  peccatoris." 

was  an  address  to  the  last  degree  striking  and  solemn,  as  it 
flowed  naturally  from  the  religion  the}i  believed,  and  awaken- 
ed in  the  reader  sentiments  of  benevolence  for  the  deceased, 
and  of  concern  for  his  own  happiness.  There  was  nothing 
trifling  or  ludicrous,  nothing  that  did  not  tend  to  the  noblest 
end,  the  propagation  of  piety  and  the  increase  of  devotion." 
Certainly  persons  in  these  "more  enlightened  times"  have 
written  more  ridiculous  and  absurd  epitaphs  than  ever  were 
produced  in  the  monkish  ages,  "  however  ignorant  and  unpol- 
ished." Sometimes  the'y  are  made  to  assume  an  epigram- 
matic turn  ;  and  however  brevity  is  to  be  commended,  surely 
a  smart  saying  is  to  be  carefully  avoided. 

Dr.  Johnson  himself  wrote  several  epitaphs.      The  one  on 

M.III .  D.XXI  .  T.  Fl.  Capito  .  Cojugi  .  Castissiraa?  .  PiissiraaB  .  et  . 
de.se.  optime  .  meritaB  .  de  .  qua  .  nullum  .  dolorera  .  nisi  .  acerbissi- 
mae  .  ejus  .  mortis  .  acceperat  .  dignissimte  .  fecit."' 

See  "Inseriptionum  Antiquarum  Sylloge,"'  &c.  a  Guil.  Fleetwood, 
Coll.  Regal,  apud  Cantab.  Socio.     1691. 


336  EPITAPHS. 

Hogarth,  manufactured  between  Garrick  and  himself,  is  ap- 
propriate ;   and  the  last  stanza,  especially,  very  striking  : 

"  If  genius  fire  thee,  reader,  stay  : 
If  nature  touch  thee,  drop  a  tear  ; 
If  neither  move  thee,  turn  away, 

For  Hogarth's  honor'd  dust  lies  here." 

That  on  Philipps,  the  musician,  is  smartly  expressed  ;  while 
those  on  Dr.  Goldsmith  and  on  Dr.  Parnell  are  written  with 
classical  elegance  :  but,  on  his  principle  above  laid  down,  one 
would  suppose  that  Parnell  was  the  more  celebrated  poet  of 
the  two.  Those  on  Sir  Thomas  Hanmer,  Henry  Thrale, 
Esq.,  and  Mrs.  H.  M.  Salisbury,  are  long. 

Where  an  epitaph  is  written  in  Latin,  there  should  cer- 
tainly be  given  a  translation  in  the  common  tongue  of  the 
country  ;  otherwise,  one  great  object  of  inscribing  epitaphs 
would  be  lost  to  a  great  portion  of  the  people.  Dr.  Johnsgn 
approved  of  epitaphs  written  in  Latin  ;  and  such  may  be  fit- 
ting, in  cases  of  eminence,  where  the  living  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  are  led  to  the  tombs  of  the  dead. 

Perhaps  in  no  one  department  of  writing  has  the  varied 
talent  of  mankind  been  more  displayed  than  in  the  writing 
of  epitaphs.  Some  inscriptions  are  of  a  witty,  or  serio-comic 
nature  ;  some  laudatory  of  the  dead,  at  the  expense  of  the 
characters  of  the  living  ;  some  enigmatical  ;  some  expressing 
lamentations  in  true  poetry.  We  find  specimens  of  these  sorts 
largely  abounding  in  Grecian  and  Roman,  as  well  as  in  En- 
glish literature.  Let  a  few  examples,  from  modern  sources, 
be  given.  The  following  was  written  by  the  Rev.  H.  St.  J. 
Bullen,  Vicar  of  Dunton,  Bucks,  on  the  death  of  a  well-known 
driver  of  a  coach  that  ran  between  Aylesbury  and  London  : 

"  Parker,  farewell !  thy  journey  now  is  ended, 
Death  has  the  whip-hand^  and  with  dust  thou'rt  blended  : 
Thy  way-bill  is  examined,  and  I  trust 
Thy  last  account  may  prove  exact  and  just ; 
When  He  who  rules  the  chariot  of  the  day 
Where  life  is  light!  whose  word  the  living  way 
Where  travelers  like  yourself  of  every  ago 
And  every  clime  have  taken  their  last  stage, 
The  God  of  mercy,  and  the  God  of  love, 
Show  you  the  road  to  Paradise  above '  " 


EPITAPHS.  337 

On  the  sea-coast  you  find  epitaphs  of  the  same  kind,  but  in 
nautical  terms.  This  one  is  to  be  seen  in  Great  Neston 
church-yard,  in  Cheshire,  and  is  but  one  out  of  many  : 

"Though  Boreas'  blasts  and  Neptune's  waves 

Have  tost  me  to  and  fro, 
In  spite  of  both,  by  God's  decree, 

I'm  harbor'd  here  below. 
Here  at  anchor  I  do  lie 

With  many  of  our  fleet, 
In  hopes  for  to  set  sail  again 

Our  Saviour  Christ  to  meet." 

The  poet  Wordsworth  (and  he  and  Southey  have  written 
many  epitaphs,  from  which  a  few  lines  might  be  becomingly 
culled  for  our  church-yards)  has  condescended  to  use  such 
terms  in  one  of  his  inscriptions,  in  which,  after  more  allusions 
to  a  nautical  life,  we  read  :* 

"  We  sail  the  sea  of  life — a  calm  one  finds, 
And  one  a  tempest — and,  the  voyage  o'er 
Death  is  the  quiet  haven  of  us  all." 

In  the  "Gentleman's  Magazine,"  too  (1747),  an  epitaph 
on  an  inactive  vice-admiral  thus  commences,  but  we  may  be 
sure  it  was  not  engraved  on  his  tombstone  : 

"  Pass  o'er  this  grave  without  concern. 
Here  lies  old  vice  from  head-  to  stern  ; 
Averse  to  strike  a  blow  in  fight, 
Inaction  was  his  chief  delight. 
I       He  quiet  lies,  as  off  Toulon^ 
Pacific  son  of  old  Neptune.'''' 

The  following  is  a  specimen  of  ill-feeling  conveyed  in  the 
same  kind  of  way,  and  is  to  be  found  in  St.  Weonard's  church- 
yard, in  the  county  of  Hereford  : 

"  Life  is  a  city  full  of  crooked  streets, 
Death  is  the  market-place  where  all  men  meets. 
If  life  were  merchandise  that  man  could  buy, 
The  rich  would  live,  and  all  the  poor  would  die." 

Take  another,  on  a  poor  man  buried  outside  a  church  ; 
although  the  authenticity  of  this,  as  having  been  actually  used, 
is  not  vouched  for  : 

*  Wordsworth's  Poems,  vol.  v.  p.  305. 
P 


338  EPITAPHS. 

"  Here  lies  I,  at  the  church  door  : 
Here  lies  I,  because  I's  poor ! 
The  farther  you  go,  the  more  you  pay, 
Here  lies  I,  as  warm  as  they  !  " 

In  Easthope  church-yard,  in  the  county  of  Salop,  there  is 
the  history  of  a  transaction  (and,  by  the  way,  it  is  reported 
not  to  be  true),  which  should  never  have  been  placed  on  a 
tombstone.  The  narrative  is  as  follows,  spoken  by  two  sisters, 
of  their  brother  : 

"  Beneath  this  stone  there  lies  an  honest  man, 
Whose  spotless  life  the  keenest  eye  might  scan, 
For  ages  past,  from  father,  son,  possess'd 
(But  here  our  tears  can  scarcely  be  repress'd) 
A  little  farm  whose  cot  near  yonder  stile 
Points  onward  to  this  ancient  sacred  pile, 
On  his  paternal  lot  he  w^as  intent, 
Which  gave  him  bread,  with  which  he  was  content 
His  sqn  in  youthful  days — hard  tale  to  tell — 
In  thoughtless  mood  the  little  farm  did  sell. 
Which  shortly  turn'd  us  from  our  native  home, 
Solitary,  sad,  th'  inhospitable  world  to  roam.* 
But  Heaven  decrees — then  why  should  we  repme, 
To  dust  our  dust,  to  God  our  souls  resign." 

In  Stoke  Newington  church-yard  the  following  words  are 
inscribed  upon  the  tomb  of  a  young  man  who  was  killed  by 
the  fire  of  the  military  in  Lord  George  Gordon's  riots  : 
"  O  earth,  cover  not  thou  my  blood  !  " 

This  was  on  the  famous  Peter  Aretine,  a  man  of  extraor- 
dinary powers  of  treachery  and  presumption,  yet  flattered  and 
loaded  with  gifts,  in  his  day.  A  sketch  of  his  character  is 
given  in  the  "  Gentleman's  Magazine"  for  1750  ;  and  this 
satirical  epitaph  is  found  in  Misson's  Voyage  to  Italy  : 

"  Comprimit  hoc  marmor  Petri  cineres  Aretini, 
Mortales  atro  qui  sale  perfricuit. 
Intactus  Deus  est  illi,  causamque  rogatus, 
Hanc  dedit,  Ille,  inquit,  non  mihi  notus  erat.'  " 


*  The  opening  lines  of  Virgil's  9th  Eclogue  will  occur  to  some ; 
"  O  Lycida,  vivi  pervenimus,  ut  possessor  agelli 
Diceret';  hffic  mea  sunt ;  veteres  migrate  coloni, 
Nunc  victi^  tiistes.  quoninm  fors  omnia  vcrtat^ 
Hos  illi  {quod  ncc  bene  vertui)  mittimus  hsedos.*" 


EPITAPHS.  339 

"  Here  lies  a  man,  who  no  man  spared, 
When  the  angry  fit  was  on  him  ; 
Nor  God  himsell'  had  better  fared, 
If  Aretine  had  known  him." 

The  most  practically  beneficial  epitaph  is  the  celebrated 
one  against  Quack  Doctors,  or  against  taking  physic  unneces- 
sarily, written  by  an  Italian  : 

"  Stavo  bene,  ma  per  star  meglio — sto  qui."t 

Here  is  a  specimen  of  the  enigmatical,  reputed  to  be  in- 
scribed on  a  tombstone  in  the  church-yard  of  Llandinabo,  in 
Herefordshire  : 

"  Templum,  Bellum,  Spelunca, 
De  Terra  in  Arcu." 

Reader  I  you  must  at  once  be  given  the  meaning  of  this,  for 
probably  you  would  rack  your  brains  in  vain.      Here  it  is  : 

"  Church-war-den 
OF  Lland-in-a-bo." 

Let  us  proceed  to  a  more  agreeable  order  of  epitaphs ;  and 
of  these  the  name  is  indeed  Legion.  Those  taken  from 
Scripture  are  perhaps  the  best.  "  Thy  brother  shall  rise 
again,"  was  placed  on  the  tombstone  of  a  young  man  who 
left  two  sorrowing  sisters  behind.  "Behold  I  am  vile  I" 
followed  by  "Blessed  are  the  dead  I"  spake  on  another  tomb- 
stone of  the  fate  of  both  body  and  soul.  The  following  is  on 
a  flat  stone  placed  over  the  grave  of  a  clergyman's  widow,  in 
Great  Neston  church-yard : 

"  Reader  ! 

In  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death ! 

Be  ye  therefore  ready, 

for  ye  know  neither  the 

day  nor  the  hour  of 

the  Son  of  Man's  coming. 

Farewell,  but  not  for  long." 


f  This  can  not  be  done  full  justice  to  in  our  language,  owing  to  the 
idiom  of  the  Italian  tongue,  whei"e"cum  sto"  signifies — "How do  you 
do?  ''     It  may  be  translated  thus  : 

"I  was  well,  but,  wishing  to  be  better,  here  I  am." 


340  EPITAPHS. 

That  of  Mason  on  his  wife,  in  the  Cathedral  of  Bristol, 
beginning, 

"  Take,  holy  earth,  all  that  my  soul  held  dear," 

is  very  beautiful.  Also  there  is  one  of  exquisite  beauty  in 
the  church-yard  of  Brading,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  written  by 
an  exciseman,  and  worthy  of  Burns.  Is  there  not  an  origin- 
ality in  the  asking  forgiveness  for  expressing  sorrow,  and 
entertaining  the  wish,  as  told  in  the  first  four  lines  ? 

"  Forgive,  blest  shade,  the  tributary  tear 
Which  mourns  thy  exit  from  a  world  like  this ; 
Forgive  the  wish  that  would  have  kept  thee  here. 
And  staid  thy  progress  to  the  realms  of  bliss."  ^ 

The  following  is  well  expressed,  had  it  been  on  a  better 

man : 

"  Beneath  these  poplars'  peaceful  shade, 
Thy  dear  remains,  Rousseau,  are  laid  : 
Approach  ye  good,  approach  ye  kind, 
For  his  was  once  a  kindred  mind."t 

This  will  be  admired  : 

"  The  maid  that  owns  this  humble  stone, 
Was  scarce  in  yonder  hamlet  known  : 
And  yet  her  sweets  (but  Heaven  denied) 
Had  graced  the  cot  where  late  she  died  ; 
Behold,  how  fresh  the  verdure  grows, 
Where  Peace  and  Itvtiocence  repose. 

"  Thou,  too,  not  unimproved  depart ; 
Go,  guard  like  her  the  rural  heart. 
Go,  keep  her  grass-grown  sod  in  mind, 
'Till  death,  the  foe  whom  thou  shalt  find, 
Bedew'd  with  many  a  simple  tear, 
Shall  lay  thy  village  virtues  here."t 


*  The  late  Dr.  Calcott  (Doctor  of  Music)  was  so  delighted  with 
these  lines,  that  he  set  them  to  music,  and  the  music  may  easily  ob- 
tained. 

t  Gentleman's  Magazine,  1748,  p.  471. 

X  The  Student  vol.  ii.  p.  230. 


EPITAPHS.  341 

On  a  man  of  literature,  on  one  who  was  in  a  shade,  but 
shining,  we  read  this  : 

"  Multis  pemilgatus, 
Paucis  notus ; 
Qui  vitara,  inter  luceni  et  umbram, 

Nee  erutlitus  nee  idiota, 
Literis  deditus,  transegit ;  sed  ut  homo 
Qui  humani  nihil  a  se  alienum  putavit. 
Vita  siraul,  et  laboribus  functus, 
Hie  requieseere  voluit."  * 

And  this  one  on  the  famous  author  of  "  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly :" 

"  Paucis  notus,  faucioribus  ignotus, 
Hie  jacet  Democritus  junior, 
Cui  vitam  dedit  et  mortem. 
Melancholia." 

The  above  is  the  epitaph  of  a  melancholy  yet  humorous  stu- 
dent. On  his  monument;  in  Christ  Church,  is  his  bust,  in 
ruff,  gown,  hair,  and  beard — with  a  scheme  of  his  nativity. 

Of  more  celebrated  epitaphs,  these  two  are  pointed  and 
concise.      This  on  Raphael's  monument,  by  Cardinal  Bembo  : 

"  lUe  hie  est  Raphael,  timuit  quo  sospite,  vinei 
Rerum  magna  Parens,  et  moriente  mori."  t 

On  Moliere,  the  comedian  and  dramatist : 

"  Roscius  hic  situs  est  tristi  Molierus  in  urna 
Cui  genus  huraanum  ludere,  lusus  erat. 
Dum  ludit  Mortem,  Mors  indignata  Jocantem 
Corripit,  et  Mimum  fingere  sceva  negat." 

Moliere,  it  will  be  recollected,  wrote  a  comedy  entitled  "Le 
Malade  Imaginaire,"  in  which  he  himself  acted  the  part  of 
the  imaginary  sick  man,  and  while  acting  in  the  play,  was 
taken  ill,  and  died  soon  after  being  removed  from  the  stage. 
In  the  church  of  Acton  Scott,  Salop,  there  is  the  follow- 
ing inscription,  on  brass,  commemorative  of  the  ancient 
family  of  Mytton.      The  father  and  mother  are  each  repre- 

*  Bowyer's  Life,  p.  558. 

t  In  plain  English  prose  may  be  thus  rendered,  "  Here  lies  that 
Raphael,  during  whose  life  Nature  feared  to  be  surpassed,  and  by 
whose  death,  she  feared  to  die  also." 


342  EPITArHS. 

sented,  facing  one  anotner,  kneeling  at  desks  with  open  books 
thereon,  and  a  death's  head  on  the  side  of  each  desk  ;  their 
hands  raised  in  the  attitude  of  prayer,  and  themselves  hab- 
ited in  long  robes.  Behind  the  mother  are  two  daughters 
in  the  same  habit  and  attitude,  and  behind  the  father  a  train 
of  nine  sons.  The  engraving  of  the  epitaph,  the  rhyme  of 
which  hardly  strikes  a  reader  at  first,  is  beneath  this  repre- 
sentation, which  is  on  a  small  brass  plate,  fixed  to  the  north- 
ern wall  of  the  church  : 

"  Here  lyeth  entombed  in  claye  the  Carcase 
of  Elisabeth  Mytton  who  late  was  the  wyffe 
of  Thomas  Mytton,  a  gentle  -\-  by  race 
wyth  these  aleven  god  blessed  their  lyffe. 
When  layed  together  -|-  and  lifTe  led  aright, 
descended  of  Gentrye  -\-  and  Daught.  she  was 
of  S.  Edward  Grydell  Albermyke  then  knight, 
She  yelded  her  breath  and  endeed  her  race 
the  aleventh  of  March  -j-  and  y®  yere  of  grace 
A  thousand  fyve  hundred  seventye  and  one 
To  whome  God  grant  a  Joyfull  resuryrection." 

In  Sir  William  Sutton's  epitaph  in  Avesham  church,  Notts, 

is  this  pretty  idea  : 

"  Sir  William  Sutton's  corpse  here  tombed  sleeps 
Whose  happy  soul  in  better  mansion  keeps 
Thrice  nine  years  lived  he  with  his  lady  fair, 
A  lovely,  noble,  and  like  virtuous  pair ; 
Their  generous  offspring,  parents'  joy  of  heart, 
Eight  of  each  sex  :   of  each  an  equal  part 
Ushered  to  heaven  their  father  :   and  the  other 
Remahi'd  behind  him  to  attend  their  mothery 

The  epitaph  on  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Pembroke  and 
their  offspring,  concludes  thus  : 

"  This  was  a  truly  noble  family,  for  all 
The  sons  were  valiant,  and  all 

The  daughters  virtuous." 

In  Llangarren   church-yard  are  these  lines  on  a  young 

child,  which  are  affecting  from  their  beautiful  and  joyous 

simplicity  : 

"  0  Christ !  my  happy  soul ! 
I  was  so  early  blest ! 
I  was  so  early  call'd, 
To  my  eternal  rest." 


EPITAPHS.  343 

In  Tretire  church-yard  is  this  : 

"  You  traveler  whoe'er  this  stone  may  view, 
Learn  to  be  wise,  nor  fleeting  hopes  pursue, 
Life's  but  an  evening  breeze,  a  murm'ring  breath, 
"Which  blows  till  sunset,  then  grows  calm  in  death." 

In  Ross  church-yard  is  this  very  beautiful  one  : 

"  By  all  beloved,  and  by  her  Saviour  bless'd. 
Almost  unwarn'd,  Death  summon'd  her  away  ; 
Yet  no  alarm  the  dying  saint  express'd 
For  her  whole  life  was  a  communion  day." 

In  Hainton  church-yard,  near  Market  Pvasen,  the  following 
words  appear  on  a  grave-stone  : 

"  In  memory  of  Thomas  Brown  and  wife  : 
He  first  deceased  :  she  for  a  little  tried 
To  live  without  him,  liked  it  not,  and  died." 

In  the  church-yard  of  Compton  Beauchamp,  in  Berkshire, 
is  this  ancient  one  : 

"  Here  lieth  the  Bodie 

of  ]Margaret  White, 

who  died  the  20th  of  July, 

Anno  Domini  1627, 

in  her  tender  yeares. 

MORIOR. 

"  A  weeke  of  yeares  I 
Lived,  and  that  exprest, 
God  called  me  hence  to 
Heav'n's  Sabbatick  rest. 
I  ranne  according  to 
My  yeares  my  race. 
And  now  God's  glorie 
Crownes  in  me  His  grace." 

Dr.  Johnson,  after  quoting  a  saying  of  Seneca,  that  "  death 
falls  heavy  upon  him  who  is  too  much  known  to  others,  and 
too  little  to  himself,"  gives  us*  the  instructive  epitaph  on  the 
tomb  of  Pontanus,  a  man  celebrated  among  the  early  restorers 
of  literature  : 

"  I  am  Pontanus,  beloved  by  the  powers  of  literature,  admired  by 
men  of  worth,  and  dignified  by  the  monarchs  of  the  world.     Thou 


*  Rambler,  No.  28.     Pontanus  was  an  Italian  statesman,  historian, 
dnd  Latin  poet.     Born  a.d.  1426  j  died  a.d.  1503. 


344  EPITAPHS. 

knowest  now  who  I  am,  or  more  properly  who  I  was.  For  thee, 
stranger.  I  who  avn  in  darkness  can  not  know  thee,  but  I  entreat  thee  to 
know  thy  self. ^^ 

Johnson  wrote  an  elegant  Latin  epitaph  for  the  tomb 
of  his  wife,  and  also  epitaphs  for  his  father,  mother,  and 
brother  ;  and  in  giving  his  orders,  he  writes,  "  Do  not  let 
the  difference  of  ten  pounds,  or  more,  defeat  our  purpose." 
The  remembrance  of  poor  "  Tetty"  is  one  of  the  best  traits 
of  Dr.  Johnson's  tenderness  of  heart.  In  this  he  was  equaled 
by  the  benevolent  Howard  ;  for  we  are  told,  "  that  the  day 
of  her  death"  (of  the  wife  of  Howard)  "was  held  sacred 
in  his  calendar — kept  for  evermore  as  a  day  of  fasting  and 
meditation."^  But  Dr.  Johnson's  sermon  on  the  death  of 
his  wife  is  her  best  epitaph  ;  an  epitaph  which  can  convey 
comfort  and  warning  to  thousands  of  her  fellow-creatures. 
«'  In  this  age  of  wild  opinions,"  he  says,  "  she  was  as  free 
from  skepticism  as  the  cloistered  virgin.  She  never  wished 
to  signalize  herself  by  the  singularity  of  paradox.  She  had 
a  just  diffidence  of  her  own  reason,  and  desired  to  practice 
rather  than  to  dispute.  Her  practice  was  such  as  her 
opinions  naturally  produced.  She  was  exact  and  regular  in 
her  devotions,  full  of  confidence  in  the  divine  mercy,  sub- 
missive to  the  dispensations  of  Providence,  extensively  charit- 
able in  her  judgments  and  opinions,  grateful  for  every  kind- 
ness that  she  received,  and  willing  to  impart  assistance  of 
every  kind  to  all  whom  her  little  power  enabled  her  to 
benefit."!  And  then  he  warns  all,  '« lest  he  who  looks  on 
this  grave  unalarmed,  may  sink  unreformed  into  his  own." 

^  We  are  informed  by  his  biographer,  that  "every  thing  connected 
with  her  memory,  how  distantly  soever,  was  hallowed  in  his  mind  by 
the  association.  Many  years  after  her  demise,  on  the  eve  of  his  de- 
parture on  one  of  his  perilous  journeys  across  the  continent  of  Europe, 
he  was  walking  in  the  gardens  with  his  son,  examining  some  planta- 
tions, &c.  On  coming  to  the  planted  walk,  he  stood  still :  there  was 
a  pause  in  the  conversation ;  the  old  man's  thoughts  were  busy  with 
the  past.  At  length  he  broke  silence.  "Jack,"  said  he,  in  a  tender 
and  solemn  tone,  "  in  case  I  should  not  come  back,  you  will  pursue 
this  work,  or  not,  as  you  may  think  proper ;  but  remember,  this  walk 
was  planted  by  your  mother ;  and^  if  ever  you  touch  a  twig  of  it,  may 
my  blessing  never  rest  upon  you!^^ 

t  Vol.  H.  p.  235. 


EPITAPHS.  315 

Yes — this  should  be  the  grand  care  and  concern  of  all ; 
and  many,  in  various  ways,*  do  bear  this  thought  in  their 
remembrance  all  the  days  of  their  life.  Johnson  said  that 
this  rule  of  Dr.  Cheyne  should  be  imprinted  on  every  mind  : 
"  To  neglect  nothing  to  secure  my  eternal  peace,  more  than 
if  I  had  been  certified  I  should  die  within  the  day  ;  nor  to 
mind  any  thing  that  my  secular  obligations  and  duties 
demanded  of  me,  less  than  if  I  had  been  insured  to  live  fifty 
years  more."  And  excellently  hath  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
said,!  "  Be  substantially  great  in  thyself,  and  more  than  thou 
appearest  unto  others  :  and  let  the  world  be  deceived  in  thee, 
as  they  are  in  the  lights  of  heaven.  Measure  not  thyself  by 
thy  morning  shadow,  but  by  the  extent  of  thy  grave  :  and 
reckon  thyself  above  the  earth,  by  the  line  thou  must  be 
contented  with  under  it Could  the  world  unite  in 

^  Some  take  a  singular  mode  of  doing  this ;  for  instance,  "  Jlr. 
Dick  Smith,  master  of  the  tap-house,  Vauxhall.  The  singular  oddity 
of  this  man's  character  may  be  worth  relating.  He  had  caused  one 
part  of  his  tap-room  to  be  painted,  representing  a  country  church  and 
church-yard,  with  grave-stones,  and  the  initial  letters  of  such  of  his 
deceased  friends  as  he  deemed  worthy  to  lie  in  the  best  ground,  with  a 
grave  left  open  for  himself  to  lie  among  them.  Those  whom  he 
deemed  mean,  pitiful  fellows,  were  placed  in  the  poor  ground,  at  a  dis- 
tance. This  man  being  thus  familiarized  with  death,  took  a  formal  leave 
of  his  friends  about  twelve  o'clock  on  Thursday,  though  seemingly  in 
good  health ;  told  them  he  should  never  see  them  more,  went  up  stairs, 
and  died  in  about  half  an  hour  after ;  and  is  now  put  into  a  colfin  of  a 
new  construction,  made  of  different  sorts  of  wood,  and  without  nails, 
with  a  lock  and  two  keys,  which  he  had  by  him  since  Chi-istmas  for 
that  purpose."' — Gentleman s  Magazine  for  May  30th,  1782. 

Yet  we  may  be  reminded  that  Archbishop  Parker  ordered  his  tomb- 
stone to  be  fitted  up  before  his  death,  that  he  might  look  upon  it  while 
he  lived.  He  had  many  inscriptions,  reminding  him  of  death,  engraven 
on  the  walls  of  his  house  and  the  glass  of  his  windows  j  and  on  the 
seal  of  his  See  was  the  manner  of  the  last  Judgment.  Bishop  Wilson 
(Sodor  and  Man)  also  ordered  a  favorite  elm  to  be  cut  down  and  sawed 
into  planks  some  years  before  his  death,  so  that  in  the  preparation 
made  for  his  coffin  he  might  have  a  memento  mori  before  his  eyes. 
Jeremy  Taylor  tells  us  always  to  let  the  striking  of  the  clock  bo 
accompanied  with  a  meditation  on  our  proportionate  advancement  to 
eternity. 

t  Christian  Morals,  by  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  of  Norwich,  author  of 
Rcligio  Medici.  Payne.  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  the  author's  life,  which  is 
prefixed  to  this  work- 


346  EPITAPHS. 

the  practice  of  that  despised  train  of  virtues,  which  the  divine 
ethics  of  our  Saviour  hath  so  inculcated  upon  us,  tlie  furious 
face  of  things  must  discqipcar :  Eden  would  bo  yet  to  be 
found,  and  the  angels  might  look  down,  not  with  pity,  but 
joy  upon  us." 

And  to  bring  the  subject  still  more  home  to  every  indi- 
vidual, let  the  following  lines  be  quoted  for  the  mindfulness 
of  a  time  that  must  come  to  each  reader  in  more  or  less 
decree  : 


■'D-' 


"  Oh  !  the  sad  day, 
When  men  shall  shake  their  heads  and  say, 
Of  miserable  me, 
Hark  how  he  groans !  look  how  he  pants  for  breath 
See  how  he  struggles  in  the  pangs  of  death  ! 
When  they  shall  say  of  these  my  eyes, 
How  hollow  and  how  dim  they  be  ! 
Look  how  his  breast  doth  swell  and  rise 
Against  his  potent  enemy  ! 
When  some  old  friend  shall  step  to  my  bedside, 
Touch  my  chill  face,  and  thence  shall  gently  slide ; 

And  when  his  next  companions  say, 
How  does  he  do  ?  what  hopes  ? — shall  turn  away, 
Answering  only  with  a  lift-up  hand, 

Who  can  his  fate  withstand  ? 
Then  shall  a  gasp  or  two  do  more. 
Than  all  my  rhetoric  could  before, 
Persuade  the  world  to  trouble  me  no  more." 

And  more  than  this — ^for  in  that  awful  hour  must  every 
mail,  however  orthodox  in  sacred  knowledge,  however  pious 
in  daily  practice,  and  however  dignified  in  person  or  estate, 
exclaim,  with  the  almost  matchless  George  Herbert, 


"  Throw  away  thy  rod, 
Throw  away  thy  wrath, 

O  my  God, 
Take  the  gentle  path." 


And  would  not  these  very  lines  themselves  form  a  good 
epitaph  ?  What  better  prayer  for  the  soul  (if  it  could  be 
permitted  to  pray)  awaiting  the  tribunal  of  the  judgment 
day  ?  Doubtless,  from  many  of  our  sacred  poets  appropriate 
lines  might  be  selected  for  the  purpose  of  epitaphs :  and  it 
would  be  well,  if  the  friends  of  the  deceased  would  usually 


EPITAPHS.  347 

consult  the  clergyman  of  the  parish,  or  some  other  discreet 
friend,  in  this  matter,  rather  than,  by  leaving  the  choice  to 
an  unlettered  stone-cutter,  deface  the  tomb-stones  of  a  church- 
yard.^ We  should  best  obtain  modest  and  instructive 
epitaphs,  if  persons  in  their  life-time  would  select  some 
sentence  or  verse  w^hich  they  might  feel  would  have  a  solemn 
effect  either  on  the  devout  perambulator,  or  on  the  mere  idle 
stroller,  in  our  church-yards.  And  what  could  be  a  more 
grateful  idea  than  that  of  contributing  to  the  welfare  of  our 
fellow-creatures,  however  few,  after  we  are  gone  I 

"  Nunc  vivo,  neque  adhuc  homines  lucemque  relinquo  ! 
Sed  linquam." 


*  See  Tract  on  Tombstones,  by  Rev.  E.  Paget :  also,  Remarks  on 
English  Churches,  by  T.  H.  Markland,  F.R.S.  &  S.A. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE.— THE  FEAR  OF  DEATH. 

We  now  come  to  a  subject  that  all  men  should  regard 
with  feelings  of  solemnity  and  awe,  and  discourse  of  in  a 
gentle  tone,  as  Dr.  Johnson  ever  did — namely,  the  fear  of 
death.  And  herein  we  shall  view  so  much  of  the  true  mag- 
nanimity of  his  mind — the  tenderness  of  his  conscience — the 
reality  of  his  soul's  religion — that  if  we  have  admired  his 
talent  and  his  benevolence  in  life,  we  shall  reverence  his 
resignation  and  fortitude,  at  the  last,  in  death.  That  he  had 
a  fear  of  death  continually  before  him,  is  a  fact ;  but  it  was, 
though  not  wholly,  a  becoming  fear,  the  fear  of  a  mind  sensi- 
ble of  the  doom  that  awaited  the  transgressor,  sensible  of  the 
justice  of  the  Almighty,  sensible  of  his  own  utter  unworthi- 
ness,  fearful  lest  Christ's  merits  might  not  avail  him ;  it  was 
the  fear  of  a  steadfast  believer  who  dare  not  acquit  himself, 
dare  not  presumptuously  anticipate  the  sentence  of  his  Judge, 
of  one,  who,  with  a  permission  to  cherish  hope,  must,  to  the 
very  last,  work  out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling. 

Let  us  first  present  his  own  recorded  sayings  and  conver- 
sations on  this  matter,  and  they  are  worthy  our  profoundest 
consideration  and  reflection,  at  the  same  time  that  they  must, 
in  no  small  degree,  call  forth  our  pity  and  regret. 

He  was  a  man  that  never  could  bear  bravado  upon  any 
occasion.  General  Paoli  had  said,  that  a  great  portion  of 
the  fashionable  infidelity  sprung  out  of  a  desire  of  showing 
courage.  "  Men,"  observed  the  general,  "  who  have  no  op- 
portunity of  showing  it  as  to  things  in  this  life,  take  death 
and  futurity  as  objects  on  which  to  display  it."  Johnson 
answered,  "  That  is  mighty  foolish  affectation.  Fear  is  one 
of  the  passions  of  human  nature,  of  which  it.  is  impossible  to 
divest  it.      You  remember  that  the  Emperor  Charles  V., 


FEAR  OF  DEATH.  349 

when  lie  read  upon  the  tombstone  of  a  Spanish  nobleman, 
'  Here  lies  one  who  never  knew  fear,'  wittily  said,  "  Then  he 
never  snuffed  a  candle  with  his  fingers.'  " 

He  was  much  pleased  with  a  remark  of  General  Paoli, 
which  was  mentioned  to  him  by  Boswell,  "  That  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  be  afraid  of  death  ;  and  that  those  who  at 
the  time  of  dying  are  not  afraid,  are  not  thinking  of  death, 
but  of  applause,  or  something  else,  which  keeps  death  out  of 
their  sight :  so  that  all  men  are  equally  afraid  of  death  when 
they  see  it :  only  some  have  a  power  of  turning  away  their 
sight  from  it  better  than  others." 

This  observation  must  particularly  apply  to  soldiers  in  the 
tumult  and  glory  of  battle.  Johnson  looked  upon  freimra- 
tion  for  death  as  the  grand  thing,  and  would  have  had  all 
soldiers  especially  prepared.  "  If  a  man,"  he  said,  "  can  be 
supposed  to  make  no  provision  for  death  in  war,  what  can  be 
the  state  that  would  have  awakened  him  to  the  care  of 
futurity  ?  When  would  that  man  have  prepared  himself  to 
die,  who  went  to  seek  death  without  preparation  ?" 

There  is  an  article  in  the  Gentleman  s,  Magazine  (1747) 
which  bears  strong  internal  evidence  of  being  the  production 
of  Johnson's  pen,  on  the  behavior  of  Lord  Lovat  at  his  ex- 
ecution, and  which  censures  the  display  of  pleasantry  and 
lightness  in  the  hour  of  death.  Lord  Lovat  was  a  profli- 
gate, hypocritical,  and  cowardly  man  :  had  he  been  better,  and 
braver,  he  would  have  met  the  "last  enemy"  in  a  different 
spirit,  and  with  other  bearing. 

"When  I  first  entered  Ranelagh,"  says  Johnson,  speaking 
of  the  Vauxhall-gardens  of  his  day,  "  it  gave  an  expansion 
and  gay  sensation  to  my  mind,  such  as  I  never  experienced 
any  where  else.  But  as  Xerxes  wept  when  he  viewed  his 
immense  army,  and  considered  that  not  one  of  that  great 
multitude  would  be  alive  a  hundred  years  afterward,  so  it 
went  to  my  heart  to  consider  that  there  was  not  one  in  all 
that  brilliant  circle  that  was  not  afraid  to  go  home  ajul 
think  :  but  that  the  thoughts  of  each  individual  there  would 
be  distressing  when  alone."  Alas  I  how  many  would  die 
without  thinking — and  the  more  thought,  the  more  fear  of 
death. 


350  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

"  You  know,"  he  says  to  Mrs.  Thrale,  "  I  never  thought 
confidence  with  respect  to  futurity  any  part  of  the  cliaracter 
of  a  brave,  a  tvhe,  or  a  good  r}ian.  Bravery  has  no  place 
where  it  can  avail  nothing  :  wisdom  impresses  strongly  the 
consciousness  of  those  faults,  of  which  it  is,  perhaps,  itself  an 
aggravation  ;  and  goodness,  always  wishing  to  be  better,  and 
imputing  every  deficiency  to  criminal  indulgence,  and  every 
fault  to  voluntary  corruption,  never  dares  to  suppose  the  con- 
dition of  forgiveness  fulfilled,  nor  what  is  wanting  in  the 
crime  supplied  by  penitence."  But,  surely,  in  such  a  case 
there  is  a  lack  of  faith  in  the  promises  of  God  ? 

"  The  serenity  which  is  not  felt,"  he  says  again,  "  it  can 
be  no  virtue  to  feign." 

The  sternest  love  of  truth  always  pervaded  his  mind. 
He  once  said,  "There  is  something  noble  in  publishing  truth, 
though  it  condemns  one's  self,"  and  we  may  feel  certain  that, 
as  in  life's  best  days,  so  in  its  last  hour,  he  would  be  no  dis- 
sembler. Boswell  told  him  of  the  unconcerned  way  in  which 
some  criminals  met  their  death  at  Tyburn  gallows  :  "  Most 
of  them,"  said  Johnson,  <'  have  never  thought  at  all."  "  But," 
asked  Boswell,  "is  not  the  fear  of  death  natural  to  man  ?" 
Johnson  answered,  "  So  much  so,  sir,  that  the  whole  of  life 
IS  but  keeping  away  the  thoughts  of  it."  He  then,  in  a  low 
and  earnest  tone,  talked  of  his  meditating  upon  the  awful 
hour  of  his  own  dissolution,  and  in  what  manner  he  should 
conduct  himself  upon  that  occasion.  "  I  know  not,"  he  said, 
"  whether  I  should  wish  to  have  a  friend  by  me,  or  have  it 
all  between  God  and  myself"  How  awful  must  it  have 
been  to  have  heard  this ;  and  yet  how  much  real  courage  in 
the  thought ! 

To  Boswell's  inquiry,  whether  we  might  not  fortify  our 
minds  for  the  approach  of  death,  he  answered,  "  No,  sir,  let 
it  alone.  It  matters,  not  lioio  a  man  dies,  hut  hoio  he  lives. 
The  act  of  dying  is  not  of  importance,  it  lasts  so  short  a 
time."  He  added,  with  an  earnest  look,  "  A  man  knows  it 
must  be  so,  and  submits.     It  will  do  him  no  good  to  whine." 

To  Boswell  he  wrote,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  in  which 
he  died,  "  My  nights  are  very  sleepless,  and  very  tedious,  and 
yet  I  am  extremely  afraid  of  dying." 


FEAR  OF  DEATH.  351 

Two  months  after,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Taylor,  "  O  my  friend, 
the  approach  of  death  is  very  dreadful  I  I  am  afraid  to  think 
on  that  which  I  know  I  can  not  avoid.  It  is  vain  to  look 
round  and  round  for  that  help  which  can  not  be  had.  Yet 
we  hope  and  hope,  and  fancy  that  he  who  has  lived  to-day 
may  live  to-morrow.  But  let  us  learn  to  derive  our  hoj)e 
only  from  God.  In  the  mean  time,  let  us  he  kind  one  to 
another.''' 

Here,  amid  some  salutary  feelings  of  a  righteous  fear,  with 
much  painful  misgiving,  we  perceive  his  moral  and  religious 
heroism  to  break  forth  :  looking  unto  God,  like  David,  in  all 
alRiction  :  cherishing  kindness,  like  St.  Paul,  toward  all  his 
fellow-creatures.      He  does  not  whine,  he  submits. 

Somewhat  later,  when  at  Oxford,  he  acknowledged  that 
he  was  much  oppressed  by  the  fear  of  death.  The  amiable 
Dr.  Adams  suggested  that  God  was  infinitely  good. 

Johnson. — "That  He  is  infinitely  good,  as  far  as  the  per- 
fection of  His  nature  will  allow,  I  certainly,  believe  ;  but  it 
is  necessary  for  good  upon  the  whole,  that  mdividuals  should 
be  punished.  As  to  an  individual,  therefore.  He  is  not 
infinitely  good  :  and  as  I  can  not  be  sure  that  I  have  fulfilled 
the  conditions  on  which  salvation  is  granted,  I  am  afraid  I 
may  be  one  of  those  who  shall  be  damned." 

Dr.  Adams. — "  What  do  you  mean  by  damned  ?" 

Johnson. — loudly  and  passionately — "  Sent  to  hell,  sir, 
and  punished  everlastingly." 

Dr.  Adams. — "  I  don't  believe  that  doctrine." 

Johnson. — "  Hold,  sir ;  do  you  believe  that  some  will  be 
punished  at  all  ?" 

Dr.  Adams. — "  Being  excluded  from  heaven  will  be  a 
punishment ;  yet  there  may  be  no  great  positive  sufiering." 

Johnson. — "Well,  sir,  but  if  you  admit  any  degree  of 
punishment,  there  is  an  end  of  your  argument  for  infinite 
goodness,  simply  considered ;  for  infinite  goodness  would  inflict 
no  punishment  whatever.  There  is  not  infinite  goodness 
physically  considered  ;   morally  there  is." 

BoswELL — "  But  may  not  a  man  attain  to  such  a  degree 
of  hope  as  to  keep  him  quiet  ?  You  see  I  am  not  quiet,  from 
the  vehemence  with  which  I  talk  ;  but  I  do  not  despair." 


352  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

Mrs.  Adams. — <'You  seem,  sir,  to  forget  the  merits  of  our 
Redeemer." 

Johnson. — '•  Madam,  I  do  not  forget  the  merits  of  my 
Redeemer ;  but  my  Redeemer  has  said  that  He  will  set 
some  on  His  right  hand,  and  some  on  His  left."  He  was  in 
gloomy  agitation,  and  said,  "  I'll  have  no  more  on't." 

This  was  one  of  Johnson's  gloomiest  conversations  ;  and 
his  solemn  feelings,  together  with  his  desire  not  to  intrude  on 
unsearchable  matters,  prompted  him  now,  as  at  other  times, 
to  cease  from  further  conversation  ;  especially  since  it  had 
come  to  a  point  when  he  would  rather  humble  himself  in 
prayer  and  reflection,  than  continue  merely  to  talk,  although 
his  talking  took  place  with  none  who  were  inclined  to  be 
vain,  or  scoff',  or  think  lightly.  We  must  always  bear  in 
mind,  that  he  was  subject  to  a  hypochondriac  disorder,  which, 
in  spite  of  every  resolution  to  the  contrary,  will  weigh  down 
the  spirits  involuntarily.  Indeed,  he  would  have  manifested 
any  degree  of  courage  to  get  rid  of  this  melancholy  distemper, 
and,  on  one  occasion,  he  emphatically  exclaimed,  "  I  would 
consent  to  have  a  limb  amputated  to  recover  my  spirits." 
Let  the  naturally  cheerful  Christian  pause,  before  he  ventures 
to  condemn. 

He  always  felt  severely  the  loss  of  friends.  Soon  after 
this  conversation,  he  writes  to  Dr.  Burney,  "  I  have  lost  dear 
Mr.  Allen ;  and  wherever  I  turn,  the  dead  or  the  dying  meet 
my  notice,  and  force  my  attention  upon  misery  and  mortality." 
He  adds,  "  We  have  run  this  morning  (in  a  chariot)  twenty- 
four  miles,  and  could  run  forty-eight  more.  But  tvho  can 
run  ike  race  with  Death  V  The  italics  are  his  own.  For 
Allen  he  had  a  high  esteem,  and  when  struck  speechless  a 
year  before,  he  wrote  to  him  immediately  to  come,  and  arrange 
his  affairs.  Probably  he  looked  for  his  faithful  services  at  a 
future  day. 

Mrs.  Piozzi  bears  testimony  that  Johnson  had  no  fear,  ex- 
cept on  the  thought  of  death.  "  Fear  was,  indeed,"  she  says, 
"  a  sensation  to  which  Dr.  Johnson  was  an  utter  stranger" 
(she  goes  further  than  he  himself  would  allow),  "  excepting 
when  some  sudden  apprehensions  seized  him  that  he  was 
going  to  die :  and,  even  then,  he  kept  aU  his  wits  about  him, 


FEAR  OF  DEATH.  353 

to  express  the  most  humble  and  pathetic  petitions  to  the  Al- 
mighty ;"  and  she  gives  us  instances  of  his  calmness,  even 
when  in  supposed  peril  of  death. 

It  was  no  puling  fear  that  affected  Dr.  Johnson,  even  in 
this  latter  case,  for  he  always  placed  the  sensation  on  a 
rational  foundation.  It  was  not  the  actual  pain  of  dying 
that  he  dreaded,  but  the  hereafter  that  followed.  Some  per- 
sons in  a  company  at  Salisbury,  of  which  Dr.  Johnson  was 
one,  vouched  for  the  company,  that  there  was  nobody  in  it 
afraid  of  death.  "Speak  for  yourself,  sir,"  said  Johnson, 
"  for  indeed,  I  am." 

"  I  did  not  say  oi dying, ^^  replied  the  other  ;  "  but  of  death, 
meaning  its  consequences." 

"■  And  so  I  mean,"  rejoined  the  doctor;  "I  am  very  seri- 
ously afraid  of  the  consequences." 

^  So  far  from  fearing  the  actual  pang  of  death,  he  thought 
'it  wrong  that  any  one  should  not  be  told  of  its  approach. 
*'  I  deny,"  he  said,  "  the  lawfulness  of  telling  a  lie  to  a  sick 
man,  for  fear  of  alarming  him.  You  have  no  business  with 
consequences;  you  are  to  tell  the  truth.  Of  all  lying,  I  have 
the  greatest  abhorrence  of  this,  because  I  believe  it  has  been 
frequently  practiced  on  myself."  A  lie  is  justifiable,  accord- 
ing to  Paley,  in  some  extreme  cases  of  self-preservation,  but 
certainly  not  in  this  matter  ;  and  besides,  we  should  always 
recollect,  that  even  if  the  uttermost  inconvenience,  should 
follow,  all  will  soon  be  rectified,  and  the  departed  person 
may  have  reason  to  rejoice  in  that  course  being  pursued, 
against  which  his  wishes  revolted  when  on  the  earth. 

It  is  certain,  that  he  thought  that  every  good  man  should 
be  fearful  of  death.  When  told  that  Dr.  Dodd  seemed  to 
be  willing  to  die,  and  full  of  hopes  of  happiness,  "  Sir,"  said 
he,  "  Dr.  Dodd  would  have  given  both  his  hands  and  both 
his  legs  to  have  lived.  The  better  a  man  is,  the  more  afraid 
is  he  of  death,  having  a  clearer  view  of  infinite  purity."  In 
this  sentiment,  we  can  not  but  think  Dr.  Johnson  as  wholly 
wrong,  as  he  is  right  in  many  of  his  observations.  It  may 
be  said,  that  all  the  Gospel,  written,  felt,  and  practiced,  is 
against  him.  Bos  well  mentioned  to  him  a  friend  of  his  who 
was  formerly  gloomy  from  low  spirits,  and  much  distressed 


354  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

by  the  fear  of  death,  but  was  now  uniformly  placid,  and  con- 
templated his  dissolution  without  any  perturbation.  "  Sir," 
said  Johnson,  "  this  is  only  a  disordered  imagination  taking 
a  different  turn."  And  yet  in  himself  in  his  last  hours  it 
was  not  so.  ^ 

Boswell  related  a  passage  in  Hawthornden's  *'  Cypress 
Grove,"  wherein  it  is  said,  that  after  having  been  in  the 
show-room  of  life,  we  should  cheerfully  give  place  to  others, 
as  those  before  us  had  given  their  room  to  us.  <'  Yes,  sir," 
said  Johnson,  "  if  he  is  sure  he  is  to  be  well  after  he  goes  out 
of  it.  But  if  he  is  to  grow  blind  after  he  goes  out  of  the 
show-room,  and  never  to  see  any  thing  again,  or  if  he  does 
not  know  whither  he  is  to  go  next,  a  man  will  not  go  cheer- 
fully out  of  a  show-room,  No  wise  man  will  be  contented  to 
die,  if  he  thinks  he  is  to  go  into  a  state  of  punishment.  Nay, 
no  wise  man  will  be  contented  to  die,  if  he  thinks  he  is  to 
fall  into  annihilation  ;  for,  however  unhappy  any  man's  ex- 
istence may  be,  he  yet  would  rather  have  it,  than  not  exist 
at  all.  No  :  there  is  no  rational  principle  by  which  a  man 
can  die  contented,  hut  a  trust  in  the  mercy  of  God,  through 
the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ. '" 

"This  short  sermon,"  observes  Boswell,  "delivered  with 
an  earnest  tone,  in  a  boat  upon  the  sea,  which  was  perfectly 
calm,  on  a  day  appropriated  to  religious  worship,  while  every 
one  listened  with  an  air  of  satisfaction,  had  a  most  pleasing 
effect  upon  my  mind."  What  a  contrast,  we  may  add,  be- 
tween the  really  brave  mind  of  the  religious  Dr.  Johnson,  and 
the  feignedly  bold  one  of  the  skeptical  Shelley,  when  passing 
over  God's  seas.^ 

Boswell  expressed  a  horror  at  the  thought  of  death. 

Mrs.  Knowles. — "  Nay,  thou  shouldest  not  have  a  horror 
for  what  is  the  gate  of  life." 

Johnson. — (standing  upon  the  hearth,  rolling  about,  with 
a  serious,  solemn,  and  somewhat  gloomy  air) — "  No  rational 
man  can  die  without  uneasy  apprehension." 

Mrs.  Knowles. — "  The  Scripture  tells  us,  «  The  righteous 
shall  have  hope  in  his  death.'  " 

*  See  Julian  and  Maddalo — and  Shelley,  after  this  conversation  actu- 
ally drowned ! 


FEAR  OF  DEATH.  355 

Johnson. — "Yes,  madam;  that  is,  he  shall  not  have  de- 
spair. But,  consider,  his  hope  of  salvation  must  be  founded 
on  the  terms  on  which  it  is  promised  that  the  mediation  of 
our  Saviour  shall  be  applied  to  us,  namely,  obedience  :  and 
where  obedience  has  failed,  then,  as  suppletory  to  it,  repent- 
ance. But  what  man  can  say,  that  his  obedience  has  been 
such  as  he  would  approve  of  in  another,  or  even  in  himself, 
upon  close  examination,  or  that  his  repentance  has  not  been 
such  as  to  require  being-  repented  of?  No  man  can  be  sure 
that  his  obedience  and  repentance  will  obtain  salvation." 

Mrs.  Knowles  continued,  "  But  divine  intimation  of  ac- 
ceptance may  be  made  to  the  soul." 

Johnson. — "  Madam,  it  may  ;  but  I  should  not  think  the 
better  of  a  man  who  should  tell  me  on  his  death-bed,  he  was 
sure  of  salvation.  A  man  can  not  be  sure  himself  that  he 
has  divine  intimation  of  acceptance,  much  less  can  he  make 
others  sure  that  he  has  it." 

BoswELL. — "Then  sir,  we  must  be  contented  to  acknowl- 
edge that  death  is  a  terrible  thing." 

Johnson. — "Yes,  sir,  I  have  made  no  approaches  to  a 
state  which  can  look  on  it  as  not  terrible." 

Mrs.  Knowles. — "  Does  not  St.  Paul  say,  '  I  have  fought 
the  good  fight  of  faith,  I  have  finished  my  course  ;  henceforth 
is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  life?'  " 

Johnson. — "  Yes,  madam  ;  but  here  was  a  man  inspired, 
a  man  who  had  been  converted  by  supernatural  interposition." 

BoswELL. — "  In  prospect  death  is  dreadful ;  but  in  fact 
we  find  that  people  die  easy." 

Johnson. — "  Why,  sir,  most  people  have  not  thought 
much  of  the  matter,  so  can  not  ^ay  much,  and  it  is  supposed 
they  die  easy.  Few  believe  it  certain  they  are  then  to  die  ; 
and  those  who  do,  set  themselves  to  behave  with  resolution, 
as  a  man  does  who  is  going  to  be  hanged  :  he  is  not  the  less 
unwilling  to  be  hanged." 

At  another  time  he  said,  talking  of  the  fear  of  death, 
"  Some  people  are  not  afraid,  because  they  look  upon  salvation 
as  the  effect  of  an  absolute  decree,  and  think  they  feel  in 
themselves  the  marks  of  sanctification.  Others,  and  those 
the  most  rational,  in  my  opinion,  look  upon  salvation  as  con- 


356  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

ditional ;  and  as  they  never  can  be  sure  that  they  have  com- 
pUed  with  the  conditions,  they  are  afraid." 

The  terms  of  salvation  are  certainly  conditional ;  they  are 
on  the  condition  that  we  believe  ;  and  if  we  really  believe, 
we  love ;  and  if  we  truly  love,  we  keep  Christ's  command- 
ments ;  so  that  the  conditions  are,  faith,  love,  and  obedience, 
with  repentance  and  conversion  from  any  sin  we  may  unhap- 
pily fall  into  ;  and  this  we  call  justification  by  faith  alone, 
because  we  mean  thereby  a  faith  that  worketh  by  love. 

He  had  before  warned  Boswell  against  transitory  impres- 
sions. "  Do  not,  sir,  accustom  yourself  to  trust  to  impres- 
sions. There  is  a  middle  state  between  conviction  and  hy- 
pocrisy, of  which  many  are  miconscious."  And  after  stating 
the  danger  of  impressions,  as  destroying  our  free  agency,  he 
continued,  "  Favorable  impressions  at  particular  moments,  as 
to  the  state  of  our  souls,*  may  be  deceitful  and  dangerous. 
In  general,  no  man  can  be  sure  of  his  acceptance  with  God : 
some,  indeed,  may  have  had  it  revealed  to  them.  St.  Paul, 
who  wrought  miracles,  may  have  had  a  miracle  wrought  on 
himself,  and  may  have  obtained  supernatural  assurance  of 
pardon,  mercy,  and  beatitude  ;  yet  St.  Paul,  though  he  ex- 
presses strong  hope,  also  expresses  fear,  lest  having  preached 
to  others,  ho  himself  should  be  cast  away." 

Not  fear,  but  caution,  exclusive  of  the  ground  of  fear.  St. 
Paul's  hope  was  contingent  on  his  continued  mortification 
and  subjection  of  the  body.  He  also  says,  "  I  know  whom 
I  have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep 
that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day." 

*  Cecil  says,  "  A  sanguine  man  sees  a  sign  and  token  in  every 
thing,  in  every  ordinary  occurrence  his  imagination  hears  a  call ;  his 
pious  fancy  is  the  source  and  food  of  an  eager,  disquieted,  and  restless 
habit  of  mind." 

Again,  "  Constitutional  bias  is  a  suspicious  interpreter  oi Providential 
Leadings^ — CeciVs  Remains. 

Charles  Simeon  writes,  after  a  dangerous  illness,  "  As  for  joyful  an- 
ticipations of  the  blessedness  of  heaven,  neither  the  habit  of  my  mind, 
nor  the  state  of  my  body,  nor  indeed,  the  character  of  my  religion  (the 
religion  of  a  sinner  at  the  foot  of  the  cross),  led  to  them  :  to  be  '  kept 
in  perfect  peace'  was  more  in  accordance  with  my  wishes,  and  that 
mercy  God  richly  vouchsafed  unto  me,"  &c. — Letter  to  Bishop  of  Cal- 
cutta, Memoirs,  p.  515,  see  also  p.  181,  489. 


FEAR  OF  DEATH.  357 

Whether  he  here  means  his  own  soul,  or  the  great  charge  of 
the  Christian  rehgion,*  we  see  here  nothing  but  the  fullest 
confidence  in  Christ,  none  in  himself  He  would  still  ex- 
claim, "  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth,"  in  sure  accept- 
ance with  God,  "  take  heed  lest  he  fall ;"  fall  away  by  sinful 
habits  from  a  state  of  grace. 

Preparation  for  death  was  the  great  concern  of  Dr.  John- 
son's life,  and  we  can  imagine  that  the  words,  "  Prepare  to 
meet  thy  God"  were  never  absent  from  his  memory.  In  a 
letter  to  Mrs.  Porter,  he  writes,  "  As  we  daily  see  our  friends 
die  round  us,  we  that  are  left  must  cling  closer,  and,  if  we 
can  do  nothing  more,  at  least  pray  for  one  another  ;  and  re- 
member, that  as  others  die  we  must  die  too,  and  prepare  our- 
selves diligently  for  the  last  great  trial." 

Well  did  he,  in  general  terms,  define  the  happiness  of  the 
blessed.  "  The  happiness,"  he  said,  "  of  an  unembodied 
spirit  will  consist  in  a  consciousness  of  the  favor  of  God,  in 
the  contemplation  of  truth,  and  in  the  possession  of  felicita- 
ting ideas." 

BoswELL  suggested  :  "One  of  the  most  pleasing  thoughts 
is,  that  we  shall  see  our  friends  again." 

Johnson. — "  Yes,  sir  ;  but  you  must  consider,  that  when 
we  are  become  purely  rational,  many  of  our  friendships  will 
be  cut  off.  Many  friendships  are  formed  by  a  community 
of  sensual  pleasures  ;  all  these  will  be  cut  off.  We  form 
many  friendships  with  bad  men,  because  they  have  agreeable 
qualities,  and  they  can  be  useful  to  us  ;  but,  after  death, 
they  can  no  longer  be  of  use  to  us.  We  form  many  friend- 
ships by  mistake,  imagining  people  to  be  different  from  what 
they  really  are.  After  death,  we  shall  see  every  one  in  a 
true  light.  Then,  sir,  they  talk  of  our  meeting  our  relations  ; 
but  then  all  relationship  is  dissolved  ;  and  we  shall  have  no 
regard  for  one  person  more  than  another  ;  but  for  their  real 
value.  However,  we  shall  either  have  the  satisfaction  of 
meeting  our  friends,  or  be  satisfied  without  meeting  them." 
What  good  sense  pervades  this  conversation. 

Bos\VELL  continued. — "  Yet,  sir,  we  see  in  Scripture,  that 
Dives  still  retained  an  anxious  concern  about  his  brethren." 
*  This  latter  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Pye  Smith. 


358  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

He  might  also  have  mentioned  chap.  vi.  9—11,  of  St.  John's 
Revelations, 

Johnson. — "  Why,  we  must  either  suppose  that  passage 
to  be  metaphorical,  or  hold,  with  many  divines,  and  all  the 
Purgatorians,  that  departed  souls  do  not  all  at  once  arrive 
at  the  utmost  perfection  of  which  they  are  capable." 

Bos  WELL. — "  I  think,  sir,  that  is  a  very  rational  supposi- 
tion." 

Johnson. — '•  Why,  yes,  sir  ;  but  we  do  not  know  it  is  a 
true  one.  There  is  no  harm  in  believing  it  ;  but  you  must 
not  compel  others  to  make  it  an  article  of  faith  ;  for  it  is  not 
revealed." 

We  may,  however,  think  that  it  is  revealed,  as  we  have 
before  shown. 

Boswell  was  fond  of  inducing  Johnson  to  speak  of  the 
future  life.  He  relates  the  following  in  a  pleasing  manner. 
"  While  Johnson  and  I  stood  in  calm  conference  in  Dr.  Tay- 
lor's garden  at  a  pretty  late  hour  in  a  serene  autumn  night, 
looking  up  to  the  heavens,  I  directed  the  discourse  to  the  sub- 
ject of  a  future  state.  My  friend  was  in  a  placid  and  most 
benignant  frame  of  mind.  '  Sir,'  said  he,  '  I  do  not  imagine 
that  all  things  will  be  made  clear  to  us  immediately  after 
death,  but  that  the  ways  of  Providence  will  be  explained  to 
us  very  gradually.'  " 

When  told,  at  another  time,  that  Dr.  Percy  felt  uneasiness 
at  the  thoughts  of  leaving  his  house,  his  study,  his  books,  he 
remarked,  "  This  is  foolish  in  Percy  ;  a  man  need  not  be  un- 
easy on  these  grounds  ;  for,  as  he  will  retain  his  conscious- 
ness, he  may  say  with  the  philosopher,  omnia  mea  oncciwi 
liortoy  One  of  the  Essays  of  Elia  will  recur  to  our  memory, 
in  connection  with  this  feeling  of  Dr.  Percy. 


FEAR  OF  DEATH  IN  CHRISTIAN  MEN. 

Such  were  Johnson's  feelings  on  the  subject  of  death,  and 
before  we  come  to  his  own  last  hours,  let  us  say  a  few  words 
on  this  solemn  matter.  It  is  very  certain  that  the  fear  of 
death  is  a  natural  fear  ;  it  is  implanted  by  the  God  of  nature 


•      FEAR  OF  DEATH.  359 

in  our  hearts.  We  can  see  the  reason  of  this — because  but 
for  its  strong  hold  on  our  minds,  men  would  too  often  be  com- 
mitting suicide  ;  and  murder  itself  might  be  regarded  as  a 
kindness.  The  Scriptures  represent  the  future  life  as  so  su- 
premely happy,  that  not  only  should  we  seek  death  for  the 
purpose  of  escaping  the  pains  of  life,  but  even  its  pleasures, 
seeing  that  these  are  so  inferior  when  compared  with  those  in 
store  for  us.  Let  us  put  it  in  this  way  :  suppose  a  poor  man 
was  to  be  told  that  at  such  a  time,  some  few  years  forward, 
he  was  to  succeed  to  an  estate  ;  that  every  pleasure  should 
accompany  his  possession  of  it ;  that  he  himself  would  be 
relieved  from  labor,  and  that  his  wife  and  children  would  in 
due  time  be  elevated  to  his  state  of  prosperity  and  peace  ;  do 
we  not  suppose  that  he  would  count  the  very  hours  and  minutes, 
and  long  for  the  years  to  elapse,  that  he  might  enter  upon 
his  inheritance,  and  from  the  state  of  a  servant  become  a 
master,  from  that  of  a  laborer  be  a  lord  ?  Well,  such  is 
the  change  that  awaits  the  Christian  man.  And  why  does 
he  not  desire  this  change  to  happen  at  the  earliest  period  ? 
Why  do  Christians  become  alarmed,  and  send  earnestly  for 
the  physician,  at  the  approach  of  illness  ?  Why  do  they 
mourn  over  a  sick  friend,  and  cherish,  as  rays  of  the  happiest 
hope,  any  little  daily  amendment  in  his  health  ?  and  why  do 
they  thank  God  that  themselves  and  friends  are  spared  ? 
Spared  from  what  ?  Spared  from  His  own  presence,  kept 
out  of  heaven,  longer  chained  to  the  flesh  and  the  earth. 
We  do  not  doubt  of  the  existence  of  heaven,  or  feel  any  un- 
certainty of  our  brother's  likelihood  of  abode  there,  and  still 
we  do  all  we  can  to  keep  him  in  this  world,  and  mourn  his 
release  as  a  calamity — a  calamity  often  all  but  insupportable. 
And  why  is  this  ?  It  is  because  God  has  implanted  certain 
feelings  in  the  human  heart,  which  His  own  religion  may 
guide,  but  can  not  extirpate — these  are,  the  fear  of  death, 
and  the  love  of  the  brethren. 

The  fear  of  death.  Should  not  a  perfect  love  of  God  cast 
out  that  fear  ?  It  may  :  but  we  are  to  cherish  another  kind 
of  fear  connected  with  this  subject,  a  fear  of  offending  God  to 
the  very  end  of  our  days,  and  who  can  say  that  he  ofTendeth 
not  ?     The  law  of  the  fear  of  death  is  not  only  given  by 


360  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  fiFE. 

nature  for  the  preservation  of  life,  but  also  it  is  continued 
though  in  fainter  degree,  to  the  spiritual  man  for  the  further 
reason  of  keeping  his  soul  careful  and  humble.  Though  he 
may  desire  the  enjoyment  of  heaven,  as  much  as  the  poor 
man  longs  for  the  inheritance  of  his  earthly  state,  yet  he  is  to 
strive  to  preserve,  to  the  best  of  his  power,  that  breath  of  life 
which  God  has  given  to  his  care,  and  to  know  that  it  may  be 
God's  gracious  purpose  that  he  should  be  more  fully  tried  and 
exercised  before  he  enter  on  his  heavenly  possessions,  and 
therefore  he  is  to  wait  in  patience  till  his  change  come. 
Thus  he  can  not  have  the  certainty  stated  in  the  poor  man's 
case.  For,  on  this  question  the  whole  matter  depends,  name- 
ly, whether  any  man  can,  at  any  period  of  his  life,  say,  that 
he  is  quite  prepared  to  meet  his  God  ;  or  that  he  can  have 
any  communication,  or  assurance  granted  him,  that  he  is  cer- 
tain to  go  to  heaven  ?  If  there  be  the  slightest  doubt,  there 
must  be  fear,  a  proper  and  reverential  fear.  Dr.  Johnson, 
as  we  have  seen,  thought  that  man  could  have  no  certainty; 
and  we  may  reasonably  think  that  a  man  can  not  be  acquit- 
ted, to  his  own  knowledge,  before  his  judgment.  God  knows 
well  who  are  pardoned  even  in  this  life,  because  He  knows 
those  who  have  truly  repented,  and  unfeignedly  believed 
His  holy  Gospel,  and  who  will  not  fall  away  ;  but  can  men 
not  have  this  knowledge  ?  If  not,  it  must  be  with  Christians 
as  with  the  enlightened  heathen  who  exclaimed,  "  Call  no  man 
happy"  (certainly  happy  for  eternity)  "before  his  death."* 

*  There  is  a  kind  of  religious  teaching  which  is  very  apt  to  betray 
souls.  The  first  direction  given  to  men  of  all  characters,  is  to  set  out 
with  a  firm  persuasion  of  their  reconciliation  with  God  and  their  enjoy- 
ment of  everlasting  happiness.  This  is  surely  an  inverted  order  of 
things.  For,  our  right  to  the  comfort  of  the  promises  made  to  believ- 
ing Christians,  can  only  be  ascei'tained  by  the  agreement  of  the  temper 
of  our  rninds  and  the  course  of  our  lives,  with  the  Scripture  characters 
of  those  privileged  persons  to  whom  those  promises  are  appropriated ; 
and  to  exhort  men  to  arrogate  that  comfort  to  themselves,  previous  to 
any  degree  of  holy  conformity  in  disposition  and  conduct  to  those  descrip- 
tive characters,  is  to  take  the  children's  bread  and  give  it  unto  dogs,  is 
to  act  without  gospel  warrant  or  authority,  to  prescribe  rashly,  and  fatal- 
ly to  mislead  the  souls  of  men.  This  kind  of  teaching  too  often  leads 
to  nothing  better  than  a  bold,  presumptuous  confidence.  Whereas,  even 
with  evidence  of  the  best  sort  attending  his  coursej  the  true  Christian 


FEAR  OF  DEATH.  361 

Very  many  men  will  argue  for  the  contrary  of  this  ;  for  men 
love  to  think  that  they  are  converted  and  certain  of  salvation  ; 
but  the  best  divines,  the  purest  and  humblest  of  men,  will 
not  be  contented,  save  when  the  work  and  fruits  of  the  Spirit 
inspire  much  hope,  with  delusive  sensations  of  the  mind  or 
heart,  that  heart  which  is  before  all  things  deceitful. 

Many  quotations  might  be  given  from  such  men  as  Jeremy 
Taylor,  Hall,  and  Beveridge.  But  hear  our  thoughtful  and 
evangelical  divines  of  modern  times.  "  For  us,"  says  Shuttle- 
worth,*  "whose  feet  have  yet  to  tread  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  and  to  whose  eyes  the  mysterious  vail,  which 
conceals  the  things  of  the  unknown  world,  has  not  yet  been 
lifted  up,  pride  ivere  ridiculous,  and  confidence  'premature.'''' 
Dr.  Arnold,  in  an  excellent  discourse!  on  Mark  xii.  34,  tells 
us,  in  asking  Who  are  chosen  ?  that  "  the  term  (chosen)  can 
by  us,  strictly  speaking,  be  applied,  in  its  full  sense,  to  those 
only  who  are  passed  beyond  the  reach  of  evil  .•"  and  he  will 
not  talk  of  the  "  chosen  irrevocably."  Dr.  Hampden  writes 
to  the  same  effect,  as  also  Archbishop  Whately.  Charles 
Simeon  said,|  "  I  think  it  clear,  even  to  demonstration,  that 
assurance  is  not  necessary  to  saving  faith  :  a  simple  reliance 
on  Christ  for  salvation  is  that  faith  which  the  word  of  God 
requires  :  assurance  is  a  privilege,  but  not  a  duty  ;"  and  he 
said,  that  a  man  "  may  be  fully  assured  of  Christ's  power  and 
willingness  to  save  him,  and  yet  not  be  assured  that  Christ 
has  actually  imparted  salvation  to  him."  This  is  a  distinc- 
tion in  which  all  the  difference  lies.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Jay  tells 
us,  §  that  cheerfulness  in  the  prospect  of  death  is  not  invari- 
ably nor  commonly  the  feeling  of  good  men.      "  The  fear  of 

will  always  proceed  on  his  course  trembling  while  rejoicing.  Dr. 
Arnold  draws  the  picture,  "To-day,  penitent,  justified,  and  full  of  assur- 
ance— to-morrow,  it  may  be,  cast  down,  and  full  of  humiliation  and 
godly  fear.  So  it  will  be,  and  so  it  must  be,  till  having  finished  our 
course^  and  the  work  of  the  tempter  being  ended,  and  his  power  stopped 
forever,  we  may  find  there  is  a  peace  to  be  no  more  disturbed,  a  rest  to 
be  no  more  broken,  an  assurance  to  be  no  more  troubled  with  fear." 
Dr.  Arnold's  Sermons,  vol.  iii.  p.  400. 

*  Sermons  on  the  Leading  Principles  of  Christianity :  Ser.  10. 

t  Christian  Life,  its  Course,  &c..  Sermon  13. 

t  Simeon's  Memoirs,  by  Rev.  W.  Carus,  p.  20. 

§  The  Christian  Contemplated,  &c.,  Leot.  10,  p.  341,  &c. 

Q 


362  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

death,"  he  says,  "  is  naturally  unavoidable  :  and  must  there- 
fore in  itself  be  innocent " — "  there  are  many  Christians  whose 
anxieties  and  forebodings  with  regard  to  death,  are  only  dis- 
pelled and  destroyed  by  the  event  itself" — the  Christian  often 
"  feels  much  more  in  the  prospect  than  numbers  of  those  feel, 
who  are  ruined  by  the  reality" — and  he  begs  the  Christian 
not  to  be  ashamed  of  this  feeling,  adding,  "  Do  not  conclude 
that  it  is  an  evidence  against  the  reality  or  degree  of  your 
religion.  Do  not  imagine  that  it  disproves,  or  renders  suspi- 
cious, your  attachment  to  the  Saviour."  ."  Some  religionists," 
he  goes  on  to  say,  "  are  fond  of  the  marvelous  and  the  sud- 
den :  and  our  obituaries  are  often  filled  with  the  triumphant 
departures  of  those  who  began  to  pray  a  few  days  before. 
This  is  often  peculiarly  the  case  with  malefactors.  Few  of 
these,  if  attended  by  some  divines,  but  in  a  few  hours  are 
quickly  ripened  for  a  confident  and  joyful  death.  We  do  not 
wish  to  limit  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  in  the  freeness  of  His 
mercy  and  grace.  But  wiser  people  hesitate  about  these 
prodigies.  They  wish  for  more  certainty,  more  evidence  than 
can  satisfactorily  be  obtained  in  cases  where  the  impressions 
of  the  condition  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  the  oper- 
ation of  the  principh  :  and  therefore,  while  they  may  some- 
times indulge  a  hope  they  will  rarely  be  disposed  to  proclaim 
it."  The  fact  is,  tl  ^re  is  often  too  much  religious  excitement 
used  in  such  and  o  ner  cases,  and  the  man  is  thrown  into  a 
fever  when  he  slio' Jd  be  left  coolly  to  think.*  But  who  can 
read  these  opinions  of  Mr.  Jay,  and  not  commiserate  rather 
than,  condemn  Dr.  Johnson.  The  words  of  this  aged  and 
venerable  minister  have  a  vast  effect  upon  thousands  and 
thousands  of  persons  of  his  way  of  thinking  in  general  on 
religious  matters  ;  and,  we  may  ask,  should  not  these  persons 

*  I  remember  reading  in  a  dissenting  publication  (1848),  of  the 
death  of  a  young  person  under  such  circumstances,  and  indeed  I  believe 
the  instances  to  be  not  uncommon.  Li  this  case,  there  was  so  much 
prayer,  shouting,  singing,  &c.,  so  much  the  more  renewed  whenever  the 
poor  patient  seemed  to  relapse  into  a  tranquil  state  of  body  or  mind, 
that  really  she  had  scarcely  time  to  commune  with  herself  and  be  still : 
she  was  forced  into  an  unnatural  excitement,  and  probably  her  end  was 
hastened,  and  her  soul  by  no  means  improved,  by  such  injudicious  and 
unnecessary  proceedings. 


FEAR  OF  DEATH.  363 

apply  them  to  the  cases  of  fear  of  death  in  those  who  usually 
think  differently  from  Mr.  Jay  and  themselves  ?  and  hence 
these  religious  persons  are  bound  no  more  severely  to  upbraid 
Dr.  Johnson,  than  to  find  fault  with  one  of  their  own  com- 
munion. And  when  they  recall  to  their  memories  the  natu- 
ral temperament  of  Dr.  Johnson,  they  will  be  the  more 
inclined  to  pass  a  merciful  judgment.  For,  as  Mr.  Jay  re- 
marks, there  is  "  the  case  of  constitutional  malady.  In  this 
condition  our  heavenly  bard  died  :  and  we  have  known  others 
who  have  died  under  a  physical  depression,  with  which  relig- 
ious encouragements  have  contended  in  vain.  But  though 
their  end  was  not  peace  in  the  exit,  it  was  peace  in  the  issue. 
Their  despondency  did  not  affect  their  right  to  the  tree  of 
life.  They  condemned  themselves,,  hut  God  delighted  in 
them.  And  what  an  exchange  ;  what  a  surprise  did  such 
sufferers  experience  I  They  departed,  expecting  to  awake  in 
torment,  and  found  themselves  in  Abraham's  bosom  I  They 
left  the  world  in  a  momentary  gloom,  and  entered  into  ever- 
lasting sunshine  I"  We  should  feel  very  thankful  for  these 
sentiments  :  most  thankful  to  know  that  a  minister  of  Christ's 
gospel  can  conscientiously  give  deliberate  utterance  to  them. 
Men  do  not  rush,  then,  upon  their  promised  inheritance  of 
glory,  because  not  only  a  love  of  life  is  implanted  in  them, 
but  because  also  the  fear  of  death,  though  mitigated,  is  not 
extirpated  by  feelings  of  rational  certainty  as  to  the  future 
destination  of  their  souls.  And,  in  addition  to  this,  there  is 
the  love  of  our  fellow-creatures  in  this  present  world.  This 
forms  a  very  strong  tie  to  the  present  hfe.  The  poor  man 
whom  we  picture  as  longing  to  enter  upon  his  wordly  estate, 
would  probably  fling  that  estate  to  the  winds  if  he  was  told 
that  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  after  he  was  in  possession,  his 
wife  and  family  would  be  living  in  utter  destitution.  A  man 
knows  that  his  family  are  dependent  on  his  labor  ;  that  not 
only  sustenance  of  body,  but  independence  of  mind,  and  pro- 
tection from  assaults  and  sneers  of  the  world  are  theirs  so 
long  as  he  is  alive  and  in  health  ;  but  that  when  once  he  lies 
on  the  bed  of  sickness,  or  sinks  into  the  grave,  all  these 
comforts  are  most  probably,  if  not  quite  certainly,  over  and 
past  for  them.     Oh,  what  foreboding  thoughts  will  almost 


3G4  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

invariably  cast  a  gloom  on  the  days  of  his  departing  life  ! 
And  even  where  maintenance  is  not  involved,  how  must  we 
feel  the  pain  and  grief  that  our  departure  gives  to  dear  friends  I 
This  is  far  more  difficult  to  bear  than  any  sufferings  of  our 
own ;  and  we  have  known  something  of  its  bitterness  during 
the  grief  of  previous  farewells  I  How  when  we  take  leave 
of  dearest  friends  are  we  pondering  on  their  sorrow,  their  loss 
of  our  individual  presence  which  we  know  gave  delight,  and 
how  do  we  picture  their  dreariness  and  wretchedness,  and 
thereby  magnify  our  own  immeasurably  I  ^  What  then  must 
be  our  sensation  on  the  death-bed,  when  we  have  evidence 
all  around  of  the  grief  we  are  causing  to  others,  and  even  only 
for  the  heart's  joy  of  these,  would  give  worlds  to  arise  up  from 
that  couch  of  death,  and  walk  among  them  cheerfully  as  in 
olden  times.  Every  man  will  assign  this  feeling  as  a  cause 
preventing  joyfulness  in,  or  longing  for  death  :  and  the  great 
consolation  in  this  trying  hour  consists  in  a  firm  belief  of  our 
reunion  with  all  our  friends  in  the  presence  of  God  and  the 
Lamb  hereafter.  The  man  who  commits  suicide  is  commonly 
one  who  feels  he  can  no  longer  be  a  benefit  to  his  family  and 
friends,  or  who  thinks  himself  deserted  by  friends,  but  the 
vast  bulk  of  mankind  are  influenced  by  the  contrary  knowl- 
edge and  experience  ;  and  blessed  be  God,  that  we  may  be 
allowed  to  acknowledge  ourselves  bound  by  these  earthly  ties, 
that  we  may  cherish  the  desire  to  remain  in  this  world,  with- 
out, by  such  feelings,  becoming  apprehensive  of  being  charged 
with  fault  or  offense  before  God,  and  endangering  the  safety 
of  our  souls  when  our  time  comes  :  still  believing  with  St. 
Paul,  that  to  die,  whenever  it  happens,  may  be  gain.  Mr. 
Jay  felt  that  Christians  must  commonly  have  those  fears  and 
regrets  in  the  contemplation  of  death,  which  have  been  men- 
tioned above  :  for  he  says,     "  The  separation  from  weeping 

*  Dr.  Johnson,  after  saying  that  our  sharpest  sorrow  arises  from  the 
loss  of  those  we  have  loved  with  tenderness,  remarks,  "  Friendship 
between  mortals  can  be  contracted  on  no  other  terms,  than  that  one 
must  some  time  mourn  for  the  other's  death;"  and  he  feelingly  add';, 
"This  grief  will  always  yield  to  the  survivor  one  consolation  propor 
tionate  to  his  affliction  ;  for  the  j)ain^  whatever  it  may  be^  that  he  himself 
feels,  his  friend  has  escapcd.^^ — Rambler^  No.  17.  This  number  can 
not  be  too  diligently  read,  as  also  Nos.  71,  78,  and  203. 


EAR  OF  DEATH.  3G5 

friends,  the  pains,  the  groans,  the  dying-  strife,  the  destruction 
of  the  body,  the  consigning  of  it  to  the  lowly  grave,  the  con- 
version of  it  into  food  for  worms,  their  immediate  access  into 
the  presence  of  Purity  and  Holiness,  the  judgment  that  fol- 
lows after,  doubts  of  their  acceptance  with  God,  uncertainties 
about  their  future  state,  is  there  not  enough  here  to  try  all 
their  confidence  and  couraofe  ?" 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE— HIS  CALMNESS  IN 

DEATH. 

Many  persons  are  fearful  only  of  the  bodily  pang  of  death. 
This  is  the  ignobler  fear  :  and  hence  we  find  that  criminals, 
and  others  who  have  no  acute  sense  of  religion,  when  they 
once  from  surrounding  circumstances  and  sensations  overcome 
this  fear,  have  nothing  else  to  call  forth  or  stimulate  that 
passion.  We  are  told  of  a  king  of  France  (Louis  IX.)  who 
had  a  great  fear  of  the  physical  pain  of  death.  He  once 
stopped  a  priest,  who,  after  praying  for  the  welfare  of  his 
body,  was  commencing  prayer  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul. 
"  Hold,  hold,"  cried  the  king,  "  you  have  gone  far  enough 
for  once.  Never  be  tiresome  in  your  address  to  God  Almighty. 
Stop  now,  and  pray  for  my  soul  another  time'''  One  of  his 
physicians,  Jacques  Costier,  governed  him  through  this  fear. 
He  was  used  to  say,  "One  of  these  days  you  will  send  me 
packing,  I  suppose,  as  I  have  seen  you  act  by  your  other 
servants  :  but,  mark  my  words,  if  you  do,  you  will  not  live 
eight  days  after  it."  The  king  not  only  kept  him  about  his 
majesty's  person,  but  loaded  him  with  gifts  in  order  to  appease 
his  menaces.  Doctor  Johnson's  fear  was,  as  we  must  per- 
ceive, wholly  connected  with  the  state  after  death,  as  involved 
in  the  decree  of  Him  who  hath  power  to  cast  both  body  and 
soul  into  hell. 

lie  tells  us  this  in  the  Rambler  :  ^  ''Milton,"  he  says, 
"has  judiciously  represented  the  father  of  mankind  as  seized 
witli  horror  and  astonishment  at  the  sight  of  death,  exhibited 
to  him  on  the  Mount  of  Vision.  For,  surely,  nothing  can  so 
much  disturb  the  passions  or  perplex  the  intellects  of  man  as 
the  disruption  of  his  union  with  visible  nature  :  a  separation 
from  all  that  has  hitherto  delighted  or  engaged  him :  a  change 

*  No.  78. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  3G7 

not  only  of  the  place,  but  of  the  manner  of  his  being  :  an 
entrance  into  a  state  not  simply  which  he  knows  not,  but 
which  perhaps  he  has  not  faculties  to  know  :  an  immediate 
and  perceptible  communication  with  the  Supreme  Being,  and, 
what  is  above  all  distressful  and  alarming,  the  final  sen- 
tence, and  unalterable  allotment^  It  is  this  that  causes 
the  dying  terrors  of  persons  eminent  for  piety  and  innocence,*^ 
while  the  stupid,  the  ignorant,  and  the  brutal  exhibit  no 
concern  :  it  is  this  which,  though  death  may,  through  its 
forgetfulness,  be  defied  in  the  field,  often  brings  fear  when  it 
approaches  the  bed  of  sickness  in  its  natural  horror. f 

At  length  he  who  had  adopted  the  proverb  of  Solon, 
Kee/p  thine  eye  fixed  upon  the  end  of  life,  as  also  another 
saying  of  one  of  the  ancients,  that  death  is  of  dreadful  things 
the  most  dreadful:  he  who  himself  said,$  "lie  that  con- 
siders how  soon  he  must  close  his  life,  will  find  nothing 
of  so  much  importance  as  to  close  it  well  ;"  and  again, 
although  he  thought  it  injurious  s^  to  be  always  pondering 
upon  death,  "to  neglect  at  any  time  preparation  for  death,  is 
to  sleep  on  our  post  at  a  siege,  but. to  omit  it  in  old  age,  is 
to  sleep  at  an  attack  ;"|i  he  who  with  all  his  gloomy  terrors 
of  death,  yet  thought  all  earthly  reputation  to  be  a  meteoi', 
and  that  no  one  ray  of  comfort  could  issue  from  this  world 
to  cheer  the  gloom  of  the  last  hour,  and  said, IT  that  when  all 
failed,  "  futurity  has  still  its  prospects  ;  there  is  yet  happi- 
ness in  reserve,  which,  if  we  transfer  our  attention  to  it,  will 
support  us  in  the  pains  of  disease,  and  the  languor  of  decay," 
and  that  this  happiness  might  be  attained  by  all  that  sin- 
cerely desired  and  earnestly  pursued  it,  therefore  on  it  alone, 
as  beyond  the  power  of  chance,  every  mind  ought  finally  to 
rest — we  shall  now  see  how  he  comported  himself,  when,  at 
an  advanced  age,  the  silver  cord  must  be  loosed,  the  golden 
hold  be  broken,  when  man  goeth  to  his  long  home,  and  the 
mourners  go  about  the  streets. 

*  Rambler,  No.  31. 

t  No.  203.     See  also  Nos.  28  and  29.  X  No.  17. 

S  He  said  to  Boswell,  "  If  one  was  to  think  constantly  of  death,  the 
business  of  life  would  stand  still." 

1!  Rambler,  No.  78.  IT  Ibid.  No.  203. 


368  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

THE  DEATH  OF  DR.  JOHNSON. 

The  circumstances  most  to  be  noted  in  connection  with 
the  last  days  of  this  great  and  good  man  are  those  which 
relate  to  his  piety,  his  prayers,  his  advice  to  friends,  his  ulti- 
mate calmness  in  death.  On  the  20th  day  of  November, 
1784,  Mr.  Hoole,  whose  account  is  a  very  interesting  one, 
found  him  very  ill,  and  greatly  depressed  in  spirits.  But, 
like  David,  when  in  dejection,  he  thought  upon  the  Lord. 
"  We  had,"  says  Mr.  H.,  "a  most  affecting  conversation  on  the 
subject  of  religion,  in  which  he  exhorted  me,  with  the  greatest 
warmth  of  kindness,  to  attend  closely  to  every  religious  duty, 
and  particularly  enforced  the  obligation  of  private  prayer  and 
receiving  the  sacrament."  He  lamented  his  own  neglect  of 
reading  the  Bible  (though,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  often 
engaged  in  its  perusal),  and  conjured  Mr.  Hoole  to  read  and 
meditate  upon  it,  and  not  to  throw  it  aside  for  a  play  or 
novel. 

His  own  belief  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  we  know  to  be 
firm.  Some  days  after,  he  said  to  Mr.  Windham,  "  For 
revealed  religion  there  was  such  historical  evidence,  as,  upon 
any  subject  not  religious,  would  have  left  no  doubt."  And 
again,  with  respect  to  evidence,  he  observed,  "  We  had  not 
such  evidence  that  CsBsar  died  in  the  capitol,  as  that  Christ 
died  in  the  manner  related." 

He  pressed  Mr.  Hoole  to  remain  that  night,  and  join  in 
prayer  with  him.  He  begged  him  repeatedly  to  let  his 
present  situation  have  due  effect  upon  him,  and  Mr.  H. 
writes,  "  He  said  many  things  that  I  can  not  now  recollect, 
but  all  delivered  with  the  utmost  fervor  of  religious  zeal  and 
personal  affection."  His  servant  Francis  then  came  up,  and 
Dr.  Johnson  said  they  would  all  go  to  prayers,  on  which  they 
knelt  by  his  bedside,  while  he  repeated  several  prayers  with 
great  devotion. 

On  the  next  day  Mr.  Hoole  called,  and  found  him  more 
cheerful,  and  he  put  into  Mr.  H.'s  hands  a  little  book  by 
Fleetwood  on  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  he 
said  he  had  been  the  means  of  introuLicing  to  the  University 
of  Oxford. 


HIS  CALMiNESS  IN  DEATH.  3G9 

On  the  five  following  days  Mr.  Iloole  called,  and  on  the 
27th  he  went  to  the  Pwev.  Mr.  Strahan's  of  Islington,  suffer- 
ing greatly  from  asthma,  and  there  he  seems  to  have  made 
his  will,  which  is  dated,  as  being  signed  and  sealed,  Decembei 
the  7th.  This  document,  we  may  observe,  is  remarkable  for 
the  evidence  it  affords,  in  few  words,  of  the  testator's  faith, 
hope,  and  charity.  His  faith  and  hope  will  be  seen  at  once 
by  the  introductory  declaration,  thus  written  :  "  In  the  name 
of  God.  Amen.  I,  Samuel  Johnson,  being  in  full  possession 
of  my  faculties,  but  fearing  this  night  may  put  an  end  to 
my  life,  do  ordain  this  my  last  will  and  testament.  I  be- 
queath to  God  a  soul  jpolluted  by  many  sins,  but  I  Jiope 
purified  by  Jesus  Christ  .•"  and  his  charity  is  proved  by  the 
nature  of  the  will  itself,  especially  in  the  cases  of  Mr.  Innys 
and  his  servants,  together  with  the  codicil  attached,  which 
bears  date  of  December  9th. 

There  has  been  a  discussion  respecting  the  sense  in  which 
Dr.  Johnson  used  the  word  "polluted,"  audit  has  been  con- 
tended, from  his  former  mention  of  the  term,  that  he  did  not 
intend  it  to  be  taken  in  its  extreme  application  :  but  the 
controversy  is  not  worth  a  moment's  consideration,  and  let  us 
rather  hope  that  he  did  wish  to  use  it  in  its  utmost  strength 
of  meaning,  although  we  know  that  he  was  often  harassed 
with  mere  scruples  of  conscience,  and  made  it  a  part  of  a 
solemn  prayer,  that  he  "  might  overcome  and  suppress  vain 
scruples." 

Several  months  before,  in  a  conversation  with  Sir  John 
Hawkins,  he  reasoned  thus  on  the  estimation  of  his  offenses  : 
"  Every  man  knows  his  own  sins,  and  also  what  grace  he 
has  resisted.  But  to  those  of  others,  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  were  committed,  he  is  a  stranger  ;  he  is, 
therefore,  to  look  on  himself  as  the  greatest  sinner  that  he 
knows  of."  And  at  the  conclusion  of  this  argument,  which 
he  strongly  enforced,  he  uttered  this  passionate  exclamation  : 
"  Shall  I,  who  have  been  a  teacher  of  others,  myself  be  a 
castaway  1"  The  next  day  after  this  conversation  he  spent 
in  fasting,  humiliation,  and  such  other  devotions  as  became  a 
man  dangerously  ill,  having,  in  order  to  prevent  interruption, 
told  his  servant  Frank  not  to  admit  any  one  to  him ;  and 


370  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

the  better  to  enforce  the  charge,  had  added  these  awful  words, 
"  For  your  master  is  preparing  himself  to  die  I" 

On  Sunday  the  28th  of  November,  Mr.  Iloole  and  others 
were  with  him.  Hearing  that  Mrs,  Hoole  was  in  the  next 
room,  he  desired  to  see  her,  and  receiving  her  with  great 
affection,  took  her  by  the  hand,  and  said,  "  I  feel  great 
tenderness  for  you  ;  think  of  the  situation  in  which  you  see 
me,  profit  by  it,  and  God  Almighty  keep  you,  for  Jesus 
Christ's  sake.  Amen."  Upon  Mr.  Hoole  almost  im- 
mediately saying,  that  Dr.  Heberden  would  be  with  him  that 
morning,  his  answer  was,  "  God  has  called  me,  and  Dr. 
Heberden  comes  too  late." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor  of  Ashbourn  read  prayers  with  him  ; 
and  Mr.  Hoole  and  Mr.  Sastres  (an  Italian  master)  remained 
with  him  for  the  evening.  To  the  latter,  after  some  kind 
words  about  his  profession,  he  said,  "  Let  me  exhort  you 
always  to  think  of  my  situation,  which  must  one  day  be 
yours  :  always  remember  that  life  is  short,  and  that  eternity 
never  ends  I  I  say  nothing  of  your  religion  (Roman 
Catholic) ;  for  if  you  conscientiously  keep  to  it,  I  have  little 
doubt  but  you  may  be  saved  :  if  you  read  the  controversy,  I 
think  we  have  the  right  on  our  side  ;  but  if  you  do  not  read 
it,  be  not  persuaded  from  any  worldly  consideration  to  alter 
the  religion  in  which  you  were  educated  :  change  not,  but 
from  conviction  of  reason." 

With  what  genuine  liberality  and  honesty  of  mind  did  he 
speak  I  He  then  most  strongly  enforced  the  motives  of  virtue 
and  piety  from  the  consideration  of  a  future  state  of  reward 
and  punishment,  and  concluded  with,  "  Remember  all  this, 
and  God  bless  you  I" 

On  this  evening  Sir  John  Hawkins  saw  him.  His  disso- 
lution was  a  subject  of  fear  to  him.  He  was  dozing,  and 
waking  up  among  his  friends,  said,  "  You  see  the  state  in 
which  I  am  :  conflicting  with  bodily  pain  and  mental  distrac- 
tion while  you  are  in  health  and  strength,  labor  to  do  good,  and 
avoid  evil,  if  ever  you  hope,  to  escape  the  distress  that  now 
oppresses  me."  A  little  while  after,  he  observed,  "  I  had 
very  early  in  my  life,  the  seeds  of  goodness  in  me  :  I  had  a 
love  of  virtue,  and  a  reverence  for  religion :   and  these,  I  trust, 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  371 

have  brought  forth  in  me  fruits  meet  for  repentance  :  and 
if  I  have  repented  as  I  ought,  I  am  forgiven."  Yes,  when 
we  think  of  the  prescience  of  the  eternal  Mind,  he  was 
authorized,  without  the  common  feeUngs  of  presumption,  in 
speaking  thus  in  the  present  tense,  seeing  that  he  spoke  con- 
ditionally and  not  absolutely.  He  continued,  "  I  have  at 
times  entertained  a  loathing  of  sin  and  of  myself,  particularly 
when  I  had  the  prospect  of  death  before  me  :  and  this  has 
not  abated  when  my  fears  of  death  have  been  less  :  and  at 
these  times  I  have  had  such  rays  of  hope  shot  into  my  soul,  as 
have  almost  persuaded  me  that  I  am  in  a  state  of  reconcilia- 
tion with  God."  Who  can  say  that  the  Almighty,  in  his  gra- 
cious goodness,  did  not  send  these  feelings  into  Dr.  Johnson's 
soul,  for  the  purpose  of  cheering  and  comforting  one  too  de- 
pressed, but  not  with  the  iritention  that  they  should  be  re- 
ceived as  his  fiat  of  forgiveness.  A  weaker  or  more  enthu- 
siastic mind  would  have  made  more  of  these  than  it  might 
be  warranted  to  do,  but  Johnson  knew  too  well  the  fallacious 
nature  of  impressions,  and  therefore  would  receive  them  with 
more  of  thankfulness  than  presumption.  Yet,  we  speak  as 
worms,  for  how  know  we  the  mind  of  God  ?  We  can  only 
be  guided  by  His  word,  which  tells  us  of  forgiveness  of  all 
sins  on  worthy  repentance  and  faith,  and  of  these  availing  us 
in  the  day  of  judgment  through  the  atonement  of  our  blessed 
Redeemer. 

On  the  two  following  days  Sir  J.  Hawkins  found  him 
more  cheerful.  On  the  29  th  (Monday)  Mr.  Hoole  called 
with  his  son,  a  clergyman,  and  Dr.  Johnson  appointed 
Wednesday  for  the  latter  to  come  and  read  the  litany.  O'ii 
this  day  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  was  with  him,  and  then,  or 
more  probably  on  December  oth,  he  requested  three  things  of 
the  eminent  artist,  viz.,  to  forgive  him  thirty  pounds  which 
he  had  borrowed  of  him,  for  he  wanted  to  leave  them  to  a 
distressed  family  :  to  read  the  Bible,  especially  not  to  omit 
doing  so  on  a  Sunday  ;  and  never  to  use  his  pencil  on  a  Sun- 
day. Sir  Joshua,  records  Boswell,  readily  acquiesced  ;  while 
Mrs.  H.  More  says,  that  he  felt  no  difficulty  except  upon 
this  last  request,  but  that  at  length  Sir  Joshua  gratified  him 
in  all.     Dr.  Johnson  always  reverenced  the  Sabbath,  and 


372  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

on  one  occasion  said  to  Hannah  More,  when  importuned  to 
speak  well  of  an  agreeable  man,  "  Child,"  said  he,  "  I  will 
not  speak  any  thing  in  favor  of  a  Sabbath-breaker,  to  please 
you,  nor  any  one  else." 

On  this  evening  he  was  much  cheered  by  Mr.  Langton 
(an  accomplished  scholar  himself)  reminding  him  of  the  gen- 
eral tendency  of  his  writings  and  example — the  Mr.  Langton 
with  whom  he  had  been  long  intimate,  and  to  whom  he 
affectionately  said,  "  Te  teneam  moriens  deficiente  manu." 
He  had  come  to  London,  and  taken  private  lodgings,  on  pur- 
pose to  be  with  Dr.  Johnson  in  his  illness. 

On  November  30th,  Mr.  Hoole,  Mr.  Langton,  and  others, 
were  with  him.  He  came  from  his  chamber  rather  cheerful, 
and  said  to  them,  while  they  sat  at  their  coffee,  "  Dear  gen- 
tlemen, how  do  you  do  ?"  He  repeated  a  poem  that  he  had 
written  some  years  before.  It  was  then  that  on  opening  a 
note  brought  by  his  servant,  he  said,  "  An  odd  thought 
strikes  me  ;  we  shall  receive  no  letters  in  the  grave."  His 
talk,  says  Mr.  H.,  was  in  general  very  serious  and  devout, 
though  occasionally  cheerful:  he  said,  "You  are  all  serious 
men ;  I  will  tell  you  something.  About  two  years  since,  I 
feared  that  I  had  neglected  God,  and  that  I  had  not  a  onind 
to  give  Him ;  on  which  I  set  about  to  read  Thomas  a 
Kempis  in  Low  Dutch,  which  I  accomplished,  and  thence  I 
judged  that  my  mind  was  not  impaired,  Low  Dutch  having 
no  affinity  with  any  of  the  languages  I  knew."  He  seemed 
to  think  his  recovery  hopeless  ;  and  Sir  John  Hawkins  found 
him  cheerful. 

On  the  Sunday  following,  the  Sacrament  was  admmistered 
to  him  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Strahan.  Several  partook  of  the 
sacred  elements  with  him.  Previous  to  reading  the  exhort- 
ation, he  knelt,  and  "  with  a  degree  of  fervor,"  says  Sir  J. 
Hawkins,  <'  that  I  never  was  witness  to  before,  uttered  the 
following  eloquent  and  most  energetic  prayer  : 

"  '  Almighty  and  most  merciful  Father,  I  am  now,  as  to 
human  eyes  it  seems,  about  to  commemorate  for  the  last  time 
the  death  of  thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  our  Saviour  and  Redeemer. 
Grant,  O  Lord,  that  my  whole  hope  and  confidence  may  be 
in  His  merits  and  in  Thy  mercy :   forgive  and  accept  my  late 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  373 

conversion  :  enforce  and  accept  my  imperfect  repentance  : 
make  this  commemoration  of  Him  available  to  the  confirma- 
tion  of  my  faith,  the  establishment  of  my  hope,  and  the  en- 
largement of  my  charity  ;  and  make  the  death  of  Thy  Son 
Jesus  effectual  to  my  redemption.  Have  mercy  upon  me, 
and  pardon  the  multitude  of  my  ofTenses.  Bless  my  friends  ; 
have  mercy  upon  all  men.  Support  me  by  the  grace  of  Thy 
Holy  Spirit  in  the  days  of  weakness,  and  at  the  hour  of 
death,  and  receive  me,  at  ray  death,  to  everlasting  happiness, 
for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ.      Amen.'  " 

May  we  not  pronounce  the  above  prayer  to  be  as  nearly 
perfect  as  we  can  conceive  a  prayer,  suitable  to  this  occasion, 
to  be.  It  must  have  been  premeditated  ;  its  fullness  and 
conciseness  proclaim  it  as  too  good,  and  too  exact,  for  an  ex- 
temporaneous effusion.  Like  other  of  his  prayers,  it  reminds 
us  of  the  comprehensive  and  chastened  quality  of  those  in  our 
Book  of  Common  Prayer.  No  infidel  could  take  such  a 
prayer  on  his  lips  ;  no  hypocrite  could  utter  it ;  it  is  the 
prayer  of  the  humble  and  sincere  believer  in  the  atonement 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  Saviour  of  the  soul ;  it  is  the  peti- 
tion of  one  convinced  that  death  is  nigh,  yet  calm  in  the 
exercise  of  his  reason,  feeling  that  the  almighty  Mind  must 
uphold  and  guide  him  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life. 

During  the  administration  of  this  sacrament,  he  repeat- 
edly desired  Mr.  Strahan  to  speak  louder  ;  seeming  very 
anxious,  says  Mr.  Hoole,  not  to  lose  any  part  of  the  service, 
in  which  he  joined  in  very  great  fervor  of  devotion.  Upon 
rising  from  his  knees,  he  said  that  he  dreaded  to  meet  God 
in  a  state  of  idiocy,  and  that  he  had  taken  some  opium  to 
enable  him  to  support  the  fatigue  ;  but  he  doubted  if  his  ex- 
ertions were  the  genuine  operations  of  his  mind,  and  repeated 
from  Bishop  Taylor,  this  sentiment,  "  That  little  that  has 
been  omitted  in  health  can  be  done  to  any  purpose  in  sick- 
ness." 

On  Mr.  Ryland  calling  on  him  afterward,  he  remarked, 
*'  I  have  taken  my  viaticum  ;  I  hope  I  shall  arrive  safe  at 
the  end  of  my  journey,  and  be  accepted  at  last."  He  spoke 
despondingly  several  times.  Mr.  Hyland  comforted  him, 
observing,  that  "  we  had  great  hopes  given  us."      "  Yes,"  he 


374  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JuHNSON'S  LIFK 

replied,  '<  we  have  hopes  given  us  ;  but  they  are  conditional, 
and  I  know  not  how  far  I  have  fulfilled  those  conditions." 
He  afterward  said,  "  However,  I  think  that  I  have  now  cor- 
rected all  bad  and  vicious  habits." 

Often  in  the  course  of  his  illness  he  repeated  the  last  con- 
cluding words  of  Izaak  Walton's  Life  of  Bishop  Sanderson  ; 
and,  indeed,  there  were  some  important  resemblances  between 
him  and  this  humble,  sincere,  and  simple-hearted  prelate. 

This  Sunday  evening  was  closed  with  prayer  by  Dr.  John- 
son, in  the  most  fervent  and  affecting  manner,  ''  his  mind 
appearing  wholly  employed  with  the  thoughts  of  another 
life." 

It  was  about  this  time  that  our  dying  hero,  for  we  can  call 
him  nothing  else,  asked  Dr.  Brocklesby,  whom  he  had  en- 
deavored to  confirm  in  the  truths  of  Christianity,  to  tell  him 
plainly  whether  he  should  recover.  "  Give  me,"  he  said, 
"a  direct  answer.''  The  doctor  having  asked  him  if  he 
could  bear  the  whole  truth,  which  way  soever  it  might  lead, 
and  being  answered  that  he  could,  declared  that,  in  his  opin- 
ion, he  could  not  recover  without  a  miracle.  "  Then,"  said 
Johnson,  "I  will  take  no  more  physic,  not  even  my  opiates  ; 
for  I  have  prayed  that  I  may  render  up  my  soul  to  God  un- 
clouded." If  Johnson  had  not  feared  death,  there  woiild 
have  been  little  bravery  in  this  remark ;  but,  with  his  known 
fear  of  the  last  enemy,  it  shows  exceeding  fortitude.  Many 
persons  wish  to  be  told  when  they  are  in  extreme  danger, 
but  few  can  bear  the  announcement  when  it  is  made.  The 
late  Queen  Charlotte  commanded  Sir  Herbert  Taylor  to  in- 
form her  expressly  of  the  time  when  the  doctors  in  consulta- 
tion gave  up  hopes  of  her  recovery.  He  did  so ;  and  with 
some  earnestness  she  exclaimed  in  alarm,  "  Sir  Herbert  has 
signed  my  death-warrant."  It  was  evident  that  the  intelli- 
gence hastened  her  end. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Arnold,  when  seized  with  illness,  fixed  his 
eyes  upon  the  physician,  and  asked  whether  an  attack  of 
that  nature  was  not  always  fatal.  The  physician  declared 
there  was  something  in  his  earnest  look  that  made  him  feel 
that  he  could  not  tell  him  a  lie  for  the  whole  world ;  at  once, 
therefore,  ho  told  him  of  his  danger,  and  the  doctor  repeated 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  375 

texts  of  Scripture,  and  set  about  dying  with  extraordinary 
composure. 

It  is  pleasing  to  know,  that  at  this  time  a  good  report  of 
Dr.  Johnson  prevailed  without.  Hannah  More  had  observed 
of  him  a  few  months  before,  that  "  he  was  very  ill,  and 
looked  so  dreadfully,  that  it  quite  grieved  me.  He  is  more 
mild  and  complacent  than  he  used  to  be.  His  sickness 
seems  to  have  softened  his  mind,  without  at  all  weakening  it. 
I  was  struck  with  the  mild  radiance  of  this  setting  sun." 
Now  she  says :  "  Poor  dear  Johnson,  he  is  past  all  hope. 
The  dropsy  has  brought  him  to  the  point  of  death  ;  his  legs 
are  scarified,  but  nothing  will  do.  I  have,  however,  the 
comfort  to  hear  that  his  dread  of  dying  is  in  a  great  measure 
subdued  ;  and  now  he  says,  '  the  bitterness  of  death  is  past.' 
How  delighted  should  I  be,"  she  adds,  "  to  hear  the  dying 
discourse  of  this  great  and  good  man,  especially  now  that 
faith  has  subdued  his  fears.      I  wish  I  could  see  him." 

To  Dr.  Brocklesby,  Johnson  said  :  "  Doctor,  you  are  a 
worthy  man,  but  I  am  afraid  you  are  not  a  Christian  I 
What  can  I  do  better  for  you  than  offer  up  in  your  presence 
a  prayer  to  the  great  God,  that  you  may  become  a  Christian 
in  my  sense  of  the  word  ?"  Instantly  he  fell  on  his  knees 
and  put  up  a  fervent  prayer.  When  he  got  up,  he  caught 
hold  of  his  hand,  with  great  earnestness,  and  cried,  '=  Doctor, 
you  do  not  say.  Amen."  After  a  pause,  he  cried.  Amen  ! 
Johnson  said,  "  My  dear  doctor,  believe  a  dying  man  ;  there 
is  no  salvation  but  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Lamb  of  God.  Go 
home,  write  down  my  prayer,  and  every  word  I  have  said, 
and  bring  it  to  me  to-morrow."  Brocklesby  did  so;*  and 
Johnson  bade  him  keep  it  in  his  own  custody  as  long  as  he 
lived. 

This  account  of  Dr.  Johnson  is  related  by  Dr.  Brocklesby  : 
"For  some  time  before  his  death,  all  his  fears,  were  calmed 
and  absorbed  by  the  prevalence  of  his  faith,  and  his  trust  in 
the  merits  and  propitiation  of  Jesus  Christ, 

"  He  talked  often  to  me  about  the  necessity  of  faith  in  the 
sacrifice  of  Jesus,  as  necessary  beyond  all  good  works  what- 
ever for  the  salvation  of  mankind. 

*  Life  of  Hannah  More,  vol.  11.  p.  393. 


376  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

"  He  pressed  me  to  study  Dr.  Clarke  and  to  read  his  ser- 
mons. I  asked  him  why  he  pressed  Dr.  Clarke,  an  Arian. 
'  Because,'  said  he,  '  he  is  fullest  on  the  propitiatory  sacri- 

We  find  this  subject  alluded  to  in  his  conversation  with 
others.  On  December  7th,  Mr.  Windham  called  upon  him, 
and  talked  much  with  him.  He  presented  the  statesman 
with  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament,  saying,  "  Extremum  hoc 
munus  morientis  habeto."  He  requested  him  earnestly  to 
become  a  protector  to  his  servant,  Francis  Barber,  and  as  a 
pledge  of  his  kind  guardianship,  desired  him  to  take  his  serv- 
ant by  the  hand,  while  he  (Dr.  Johnson)  repeated  the  recom- 
mendation he  had  just  made,  and  Mr.  Windham's  promise 
to  attend  to  it.  Thus  was  Johnson  faithful  to  the  last  to 
the  poor  and  friendless,  and  Mr.  Windham  no  less  declared 
by  his  willing  compliance  his  own  acknowledged  manliness 
of  mind.^ 

Next  ensued  discourse  upon  the  evidence  for  revealed 
religion,  which  we  have  related  before.  Of  proofs  to  be 
derived  from  history,  one  of  the  most  cogent,  he  seemed  to 

*  For  example  of  this,  see  Mr.  Windham's  published  speeches  in 
Parliament,  delivered  in  the  House  of  "  Clinabs"  (Commons),  under 
the  disguised  name  of  "  Gumdahm ;"  at  least  so  was  it  in  Dr.  Johnson's 
days.  Windham  was  one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  that  respectable  body 
of  patriots  that  leagued  together  against  Sir  R.  Walpole ;  who,  while 
almost  all  the  men  of  wit  and  genius  opposed  him,  is  said  to  have  paid 
in  vain  above  fifty  thousand  pounds  to  paltry  scribblers  in  his  defense. 

An  anecdote  illustrative  of  a  curious  notion  of  liberty,  is  told  in  con- 
nection with  Mr.  Windham's  name.  "  A  Surrey  magistrate  told  a 
friend  of  mine  yesterday,"  says  Wilberforce,  "  that  some  people  met 
for  a  boxing  match,  and  the  magistrates  proceeding  to  separate  them, 
they  threw  their  hats  into  the  air,  and  declaring  Mr.  Windham  had 
defended  boxing  in  Parliament,  cried  out,  '  Windham  and  Liberty.'  A 
strange  and  novel  association,  by  the  way." 

But  Wilberforce  could  appreciate  Windham's  talent.  On  a  visit  to 
Fellrigg,  he  turned  over  with  great  interest  in  its  library  many  of  the 
books,  which  were  "full  of  Windham's  marks."  "  Windham's  mind," 
he  said,  "  was  in  the  last  degree  copious ;  the  soil  was  so  fertile,  scratch 
where  you  pleased,  up  came  white  clover.  He  had  many  of  the  true 
characteristics  of  a  hero,  but  he  had  one  great  fault  as  a  statesman — 
he  hated  the  popular  side  of  any  question."  How  different  to  this  is 
the  manner  of  some  statesmen  of  the  present  day.  See  "Memoirs  of 
Wilberforce,"  by  his  Sons. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  377 

think,  was  the  opinion  so  well  authenticated,  and  so  long 
entertained,  of  a  deliverer  that  was  to  appear  about  that 
time.  Among  the  typical  representations,  the  sacrifice  of 
the  Paschal  Lamb,  in  which  no  bone  was  to  be  broken,  had 
early  struck  his  mind.  He  implored  Mr.  Windham  to  keep 
holy  the  Sabbath-day.  After  alluding  to  the  manifold  and 
deep  engagements  of  his  political  life,  he  said,  that  he  did 
not  condemn  civil  employment,  but  that  it  was  a  state  of 
great  danger,  and  that  he  had  therefore  one  piece  of  advice 
earnestly  to  impress  upon  him,  that  he  would  set  apart  every 
seventh  day  for  the  care  of  his  soul.  "  Such  a  portion  of 
time,"  he  remarked,  "  was  surely  little  enough  for  the  medita- 
tion of  eternity."  He  himself  loved  to  read  only  theological 
books  on  a  Sunday,  yet  he  was  far  from  keeping  the  Pharisee's 
Sabbath,  and  once  said  admirably,  on  some  person  denouncing 
another  for  some  lesser  observance  of  the  sacred  day,  "Who- 
ever loads  life  with  unnecessary  scruples,  provokes  the  atten- 
tion of  others  on  his  conduct,  and  incurs  the  censure  of  sin- 
gularity, without  reaping  the  reward  of  superior  virtue." 

On  this  day,  both  Sir  J.  Hawkins  and  Mr.  Hoole  visited 
him.  The  former  says,  that  Johnson  wished  an  operation 
to  be  performed,  and  on  Dr.  Brocklesby  saying  that  the  sur- 
geon was  the  best  judge  of  that,  he  replied,  "  How  many  men 
in  a  year  die  through  the  timidity  of  those  whom  they  con- 
sult for  health  I  /  want  length  of  life,  and  you  fear  giving 
me  pain,  ichich  I  care  not  forT  Three  days  before,  he 
had  told  Sir  John  that  he  was  easier  in  his  mind,  and  as  fit 
to  die  that  instant  as  he  could  be  a  year  hence.  Mr.  Hoole 
found  him  in  good  spirits. 

On  December  8  th,  Mr.  Hoole  found  him  very  poorly  and 
low,  after  a  bad  night.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hoole,  who  had  been 
unremittingly  attentive,  read  the  litany.  Dr.  Johnson  urging 
him  to  speak  louder,  while  he  himself  made  the  responses  in 
a  deep  and  sonorous  voice.  After  prayers,  Mr.  Langton 
came  in,  and  much  serious  discourse  followed.  He  warned 
all  to  profit  by  his  situation,  and  exhorted  Mr.  Hoole  to  lead 
a  better  life  than  he  had  done.  "A  better  life  than  you,  my 
dear  sir  I"  exclaimed  Mr.  H.  Johnson  replied  warmly, 
"  Don't  compliment  me  now."     He  told  Mr.  Langton  that 


378  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

he  had  on  the  night  before  enforced  on (evidently  Mr. 

"Windham)  a  powerful  argument  to  a  powerful  objection 
against  Christianity. 

He  then  spoke  on  the  Jews  denying  Christ,  yet,  after  his 
death,  raising  a  numerous  church.  Again  he  said,  that  he 
had  always  been  struck  with  the  resemblance  of  the  Jewish 
passover  and  the  Christian  doctrine  of  redemption. 

On  this  day,  Sir  J.  Hawkins  found  him  dictating  another 
will.  After  it  was  done,  he  desired  Mr.  Strahan  to  say  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  then  added  some  extemporaneous  ejacu- 
lations of  a  pious  kind. 

Of  the  next  three  days  nothing  particular  is  recorded.  He 
was  in  pain,  and  preserved  his  piety  throughout.  On  the  9th 
Sir  J.  Hawkins  found  him  composed  and  resigned.  On  the 
11th  he  told  Mr.  Hoole,  who  had  recommended  an  irregular 
physician,  famous  for  curing  the  dropsy,  "  It  was  too  late  for 
doctors,  regular  or  irregular. ^^  He  said  to  Mr.  Crickshanks, 
his  medical  man,  "  Come,  give  me  your  hand  ;"  and  having 
shaken  it,  added,  "  You  shall  make  no  other  use  of  it  now  ;" 
meaning,  he  should  not  examine  his  legs. 

On  December  12th  Mr.  Windham  called  at  half-past 
seven,  p.m.,  and  staid  till  after  eleven,  though  chiefly  in  the 
outer  room.  It  was  his  endeavor  to  prevail  on  Johnson  to 
take  more  nourishment ;  not,  as  he  told  him,  "  for  the  pur- 
pose of  prolonging  his  life  for  a  few  hours  or  days,"  but  that 
"  he  might  preserve  his  faculties  entire  to  the  last  moment." 
Johnson,  however,  resolute  in  his  denial  of  opiates,  or  any 
thing  of  an  inebriating  nature,  begged  that  there  might  be 
an  end  of  this  kind  importunity.  He  then  took  leave  of 
Windham,  "  with  great  fervor,"  says  Mr.  W.,  "  in  words 
which  I  shall,  I  hope,  never  forget ;  '  God  bless  you,  my  dear 
Windham,  through  Jesus  Christ;'  and  concluding  with  a  wish, 
'  that  we  might  share  in  some  humble  portion  of  that  happiness 
which  God  might  finally  vouchsafe  to  repentant  sinners.'  " 

"  These  were  the  last  words,"  adds  Mr.  Windham,  "  I 
ever  heard  him  speak.  I  hurried  out  of  the  room  with  tears 
in  my  eyes,  and  more  aflected  than  I  had  ever  been  on  any 
former  occasion."  Mr.  Hoole  tells  us  of  this  visit,  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Strahan  was  there  a  great  length  of  time. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  379 

Mr,  Windham  called  again,  and  heard  of  his  state,  and 
what  he  had  been  saying.  Among  other  things,  he  insisted 
on  the  doctrine  of  an  expiatory  sacrifice,  as  the  condition, 
without  which  there  was  no  Christianity  ;  and  urged  in  sup- 
port, the  belief  entertained  in  all  ages,  and  by  all  nations, 
barbarous  as  well  as  polite. 

From  Mr.  Windham's  journal,  the  following  entries  are 
extracted  :  "  December  13.  Forty- five  minutes  past  ten,  p.m. 
While  writing  the  preceding  articles,  I  received  the  fatal 
account,  so  long  dreaded,  that  Dr.  Johnson  was  no  more  I 

"  May  those  prayers  which  he  incessantly  poured  from  a 
heart  fraught  with  the  deepest  devotion,  find  their  acceptance 
with  Him  to  whom  they  were  addressed — which  piety,  so 
humble  and  so  fervent,  may  seem  to  promise." 

"  December  18. — For  some  days  no  work  of  any  sort  has 
been  done.  I  can  not,  indeed,  say  that  all  the  time  has  been 
misspent  ;  much  of  it  has  been  employed  in  performing  the 
last  duties  of  respect  and  aiTection  to  the  great  man  who  is 
gone." 

"  December  20th. — A  memorable  day ;  the  day  which  saw 
deposited  in  Westminster  Abbey  the  remains  of  Johnson." 

On  December  13th  (1784),  Mr.  Hoole  called,  and  found 
him  composed.  A  young  lady,  the  daughter  of  an  old  friend, 
had  been  permitted  to  see  him,  that  she  might  earnestly  re- 
quest him  to  give  her  his  blessing.  The  dying  man  turned 
himself  in  the  bed,  and  said  "  God  bless  you,  my  dear  I" 
These  were  the  last  words  he  spoke.*  His  difficulty  of 
breathing  increased  till  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening, 
when  Barber  and  Mrs.  Desmoulins,  who  were  sitting  in  the 
room,  observing  that  the  noise  he  had  made  in  breathing  had 
ceased,  went  to  the  bed,  and  found  he  was  dead  I" 

"  We  went  into  the  chamber,"  says  Mr.  Hoole,  "  and 
there  saw  the  most  awful  sight  of  Dr.  Johnson  laid  out  in 
his  bed,  without  life." 

Thus  died  Dr.  Johnson,  physically  tranquil,  as  one  going 

*  Sir  J.  Hawkins  says,  that,  in  his  last  moments,  he  uttered  these 
words  to  Mr.  Sastres,  '"  Jam  moriturus^''  and  at  a  quarter  past  seven, 
he  had,  without  a  groan,  or  the  least  sign  of  pain  or  uneasiness,  yielded 
his  last  breath. 


380  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

off  into  a  placid  sleep.  Nor  was  his  mind,  we  may  conceive, 
less  composed.  "  He  will  not  leave,"  exclaimed  Hannah 
More,  "  an  abler  defender  of  religion  and  virtue  behind  him ; 
and  he  who  so  tenderly  insisted  on  a  year's  widowhood  in  his 
Literary  Club  ere  a  successor  to  Garrick  should  be  named, 
has  himself  nigh  caused  a  continued  widowhood  in  the  world." 

Of  his  last  days,  Bosvvell's  brother  has  made  this  record, 
"  The  doctor,  from  the  time  he  was  certain  his  death  was 
near,  appeared  to  be  perfectly  resigned  ;  was  seldom  or  never 
fretful  or  out  of  temper,  and  often  said  to  his  faithful  servant, 
who  gave  me  this  account,  '  Attend,  Francis  to  the  salvation 
of  your  soul,  which  is  the  object  of  greatest  importance  ;'  he 
also  explained  to  him  passages  in  the  Scripture,  and  seemed 
to  have  pleasure  in  talking  on  religious  subjects." 

The  Honorable  John  Byng,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Malone, 
states,  that  he  had  a  long  conversation  with  Cawston,  who 
sat  up  with  Dr.  Johnson  the  whole  of  Sunday  night,  and 
who  says,  that  the  doctor  "  was  perfectly  composed,  steady 
in  hope,  and  resigned  to  death.  ...  At  the  interval  of  each 
hour  they  assisted  him  to  sit  up  in  his  bed,  and  move  his 
legs,  which  were  in  much  pain  ;  when  he  regularly  addressed 
himself  to  fervent  prayer  ;  and  though  sometimes  his  voice 
failed  him,  his  sense  never  did,  during  that  time.  He  said 
his  mind  was  prepared,  and  the  time  to  his  dissolution  seem- 
ed long.  .  .  .  Cawston  says,  that  no  man  could  appear  more 
collected,  more  devout,  or  less  terrified  at  the  thoughts  of  the 
approaching  minute." 

Sir  John  Hawkins  writes  (after  saying,  however  heroic  an 
undaunted  death  may  appear,  it  is  not  what  we  should  pray 
for),  "  As  Johnson  lived  the  life  of  the  righteous,  his  end  was 
that  of  a  Christian  :  he  strictly  fulfilled  the  injunction  of  the 
Apostle,  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling ;  and  though  his  doubts  and  scruples  were  certainly 
very  distressing  to  himself,  they  gave  his  friends  a  pious  hope, 
that  he  who  added  to  almost  all  the  virtues  of  Christianity 
that  religious  humility  which  its  great  Teacher  inculcated, 
will,  in  the  fullness  of  time,  receive  the  reward  promised  to 
a  patient  continuance  in  weil-doing." 

We  may  well  remember  here  some  words  of  one  his  favor- 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  381 

ite  religious  authors  :*  "  Courage  and  bravery,"  says  Law, 
"are  words  of  a  great  sound,  and  seem  to  signify  an  heroic 
spirit ;  but  yet,  humility,  which  seems  to  be  the  lowest, 
meanest  part  of  devotion,  is  a  more  certain  argument  of  a 
noble  and  courageous  mind." 

It  was  such  humility  which  made  Charles  Simeon  abhor 
from  his  inmost  soul  a  death-bed  scene,  and  bade  him  remem- 
ber how,  the  angels  theinselves  vail  their  faces  in  the  presence 
of  the  High  and  Holy  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity.  It  was 
such  humility  that  led  that  eminent  jmstor,  Jones  of  Nay- 
land,  not  to  apply  St.  Paul's  words  t  to  himself,  but  rather 
only  to  repeat  those  words  which  our  blessed  Lord  used  to- 
ward the  woman  with  the  box  of  ointment — and  as  she  made 
an  offering  at  the  head  of  Christ,  he  would  offer  all  he  had 
at  His  feet  !  Joyous  will  it  be  for  every  man  whose  faith 
and  work  can  justify  a  personal  application  of  the  simple  an- 
nouncement, to  be  uttered  by  Divine  voice  only.  He  hath 
done  ichat  he  could  ! 

Hannah  More  tells  us,$  as  informed  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Storry,  of  Colchester,  that  Dr.  Johnson,  not  to  be  comforted 
by  the  ordinary  topics  of  consolation  addressed  to  him,  desired 
to  see  a  clergyman,  and  particularly  described  the  views  and 
character  of  the  person  whom  he  wished  to  consult.  After 
some  consideration,  a  Mr.  Winstanley  was  named,  and  the 
doctor  requested  Sir  John  Hawkins  to  write  a  note  in  his 
name,  requesting  Mr.  Winstanley's  attendance  as  a  minister. 

Mr.  Winstanley,^  who  was  in  a  very  weak  state  of  health, 
was  quite  overpowered  on  receiving  the  note,  and  felt  appalled 

*  Law's  Serious  Call,  p.  450. 

t  See  works  of  Rev.  William  Jones,  M.A..  vol.  i.  p.  40.  The  words 
of  St.  Paul  were  those  in  2  Tim.  iv.  7,  8,  and  are  alluded  to  in  a  brief 
and  humble  letter  to  a  dear  friend. 

X  For  this  account  see  Memoirs  of  Hannah  More,  vol.  i.  p.  378,  &c. 

§  This  was  the  Rev.  Thomas  Winstanley,  Canon  Residentiary  of 
Peterborough,  a  Canon  of  St.  Paul's,  and  Rector  of  St.  Dunstan's  in 
the  East  He  was  an  excellent  preacher,  but  a  man  of  most  reserved 
and  retired  manners.  Notwithstanding  his  studious  and  peaceful  habits, 
he  on  three  occasions  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  in  public  ;  first,  by 
advocating  the  cause  of  Admiral  Byng,  whom  he  considered  unjustly 
condemned  to  death  by  the  memorable  court-martial ;  secondly,  by  en- 
deavoring to  save  the  life  of  Dr.  Dodd.  convicted  of  forgery ;  and  thirdly, 


J82  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

by  the  very  tliought  of  encountering  the  talents  and  learning 
of  Dr.  Johnson.  In  his  embarrassment,  he  went  to  his  friend 
Colonel  Pownall,  and  told  him  what  had  happened,  asking  at 
the  same  time  for  his  advice  how  to  act.  The  colonel,  who 
was  a  pious  man,  urged  him  immediately  to  follow  what  ap- 
peared to  be  a  remarkable  leading  of  Providence,  and  for  the 
time  argued  his  friend  out  of  his  nervous  apprehension  :  but 
after  he  had  left  Colonel  Pownall,  Mr.  Winstanley's  fear  re- 
turned in  so  great  a  degree,  as  to  prevail  upon  him  to  aban- 
don the  thought  of  a  personal  interview  with  Dr.  Johnson. 
He  determined  in  consequence  to  write  him  a  letter  ;  and 
part  of  that  letter,  as  repeated  by  Mr.  Storry  to  Hannah 
More,  was  as  follows: 

"  Sir — I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  nonor  of  your  note,  and 
am  very  sorry  that  the  state  of  my  health  prevents  my  com- 
j)liance  with  your  request ;  but  my  nerves  are  so  shattered, 
that  I  feel  as  if  I  should  be  quite  confounded  by  your  presence, 
and  instead  of  promoting,  should  only  injure  the  cause  in 
which  you  desire  my  aid.  Permit  me,  therefore,  to  write 
what  I  should  wish  to  say  were  I  present.  I  can  easily  con- 
ceive what  would  be  the  subjects  of  your  inquiry.  I  can 
conceive  that  the  views  of  yourself  have  changed  with  your 
condition,  and  that  on  the  near  approach  of  death,  what  you 
once  considered  mere  peccadilloes  have  risen  into  mountains 
of  guilt,  while  your  best  actions  have  dwindled  into  nothing. 
On  whichever  side  you  look,  you  see  only  positive  transgres- 
sions or  defective  obedience  ;  and  hence,  in  self-despair,  are 
eagerly  inquiring,  '  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  V  I  say  to 
you,  in  the  language  of  the  Baptist,  '  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God !'  "  &c. 

When  Sir  John  Hawkins  came  to  this  part  of  Mr.  Win- 
by  advocating  the  repeal  of  the  laws  against  the  Jews,  disabling  them 
from  the  exercise  of  civil  rights.  He  was  the  author  of  the  "  Christian 
Calling,"  and  of  "  Meditations,"  and  in  his  latter  days  he  had  a  strong 
leaning  to  what  were  called  Evangelical  principles. 

He  married  the  widow  of  Colonel  Braithwaite;  and  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  mention  that  the  writer  of  this  book  is  his  great-grandson. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  383 

Stanley's  letter,  Dr.  Johnson  interrupted  him,  anxiously  ask- 
ing, "  Docs  he  say  so  ?  Pwead  it  again  I  Sir  John."  Sir 
John  complied  ;  upon  which  Dr.  Johnson  said,  "  I  must  see 
that  man  ;  write  again  to  him."  A  second  note  was  accord- 
ingly sent ;  but  even  this  repeated  solicitation  could  not  prevail 
over  Mr.  AVinstanley's  fears.  He  was  led,  however,  to  write 
again  to  the  doctor,  renewing  and  enlarging  upon  the  subject 
of  his  first  letter  ;  and  these  communications,  together  with 
the  conversation  of  the  late  Mr.  La  Trobe,  who  was  a  partic- 
ular friend  of  Dr.  Johnson,  appear  to  have  been  blessed  by 
God  in  bringing  this  great  man  to  a  renunciation  of  self,  and 
a  simple  reliance  on  Jesus  as  his  Saviour,  thus  also  communi- 
cating to  him  that  peace  which  he  had  found  the  world  could 
not  ijive,  and  which,  when  the  world  was  fading  from  his 
view,  was  to  fill  the  void,  and  dissipate  the  gloom,  even  of 
the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. 

If  this  account  be  a  true  one,  and  if  the  letters  of  Mr. 
Winstanley  were  blessed  to  Dr.  Johnson's  soul,  we  have  no 
reason  to  deplore  his  non-attendance  ;  only  remarking  that 
such  non-attendance  was  inexcusable  save  and  except  on  the 
valid  plea  of  ill-health  and  shattered  nerves.  Dr.  Johnson, 
from  the  description  evidently  given  him  of  this  clergyman, 
would  have  expected  much  instruction  and  consolation  from 
his  presence  ;  and  it  would  have  been  sad,  if,  from  bodily 
weakness,  the  powers  of  his  mind  had  forsaken  him ;  but  still 
a  minister  of  God  is  to  go  forth  in  prayer  and  hope,  and  ven- 
ture to  trust  that  strength  will  be  granted  him  sufficient  for 
the  important  duty  he  has  undertaken  in  all  humility. 

Every  clergyman  may  with  propriety  recollect,  that  the 
preparation  for  the  future  life  is  quite  a  difTerent  matter  from 
the  possession  of  great  talents  in  the  present  time.  Wilber- 
force  speaks  of  the  poem  entitled  the  "  Curse  of  Kehama," 
and  describes  it  thus  :  "  Imagination  as  wild  as  the  winds  ; 
prodigious  command  of  language,  and  the  moral  purity  truly 
sublime  ;  the  finest  ideas  all  taken  from  the  Scriptures  ; " 
and  he  continues  afterward,  "  Oh  I  what  a  consideration  is  it, 
that  magnificent  as  are  the  visions  of  glory  in  which  Southey's 
fancy  revels,  and  which  his  creative  genius  forms,  they  are 
all  beneath  the  simple  reality  of  the  Christian's  hope,  if  he  be 


384  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

but  duly  impressed  with  it."  Yes,  truly,  the  Christian's  hope 
is  a  simple,  as  it  is  a  humbling  possession  :  and  the  clergyman 
who  should  attend  at  the  last  on  a  Johnson  or  a  Southey, 
need  not  be  as  profound  in  learning  as  the  one,  or  as  sublime- 
ly poetical  as  the  other  ;  neither  would  they  themselves  desire 
such  qualities  in  their  spiritual  comforters,  if  their  greatness 
be  tempered  with  humihty.  The  pastor  is  commissioned  to 
open  the  Word  of  God,  which  is  so  far  superior  to  any  words 
of  man  ;  and  from  this  he  is  authorized  to  draw  his  sublime 
yet  simple  lesson,  a  lesson  which  is  not  effectual  unless  it 
tend  to  debase  the  vanity  of  human  talent,  and  tarnish  every 
proud  thought  of  moral  excellence. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

CONCLUSION.— CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

We  have  now  only  to  take  a  very  brief  review  of  Dr. 
Johnson's  character,  and  of  his  death.  All  men  that  are  in 
any  degree  acquainted  with  English  literature,  have  heard  the 
name  of  Dr.  Johnson,  and  have  perused  his  Works.  He, 
like  other  foremost  writers,  had  a  style  of  his  own — dangerous 
to  imitate,  and  not,  but  for  the  excellence  attained,  and  the 
weight  of  the  moral  sentiments  conveyed  by  it,  altogether 
acceptable  for  the  improvement  of  our  literature.  He  used 
to  say  of  Addison,  "He  is  the  Pvaphael  of  Essay  writers." 
and  yet  he  himself  in  no  way  endeavored  to  adopt  the  elegant 
simplicity,  and  more  idiomatic  manner  of  Addison's  writing. 
Johnson  will  always  be  regarded  as  the  very  antipodes  of 
Addison.  "Addison,"  says  Murphy,^  "lends  grace  and 
ornament  to  truth  ;  Johnson  gives  it  force  and  energy, 
Addison  makes  virtue  amiable  ;  Johnson  represents  it  as  an 
awful  duty.  Addison  insinuates  himself  with  an  air  of 
modesty  :  Johnson  commands  like  a  dictator  ;  but  a  dicta- 
tor in  his  splendid  robes,  not  laboring  at  the  plow.  Addi- 
son is  the  Jupiter  of  Virgil,  with  placid  serenity  talking  to 
Venus : 

"  Vultu  quo  coelura  tempestatesque  serenat." 

Johnson  is  Jupiter  Tonans  ;  he  darts  his  lightning,  and  rolls 
his  thunder,  in  the  cause  of  virtue  and  piety.  The  language 
seems  to  fall  short  of  his  ideas  ;  he  pours  along,  familiarizing 
the  terms  of  philosophy,  with  bold  inversions,  and  sonorous 
periods  :  but  we  may  apply  to  him  what  Pope  has  said  of 
Homer  :    "  It  is  the  sentiment  that  swells  and  fills  the  dic- 

*  From  an  Essay  on  the  Life  and  Genius  of  Dr.  Johnson,  by  Arthur 
IMurphy,  Esq.,  a  continued  friend  of  Johnson's,  and  a  member  of  the 
Essex  Head  Club 

u 


386  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

tion,  which  rises  with  it,  and  forms  itself  about  it ;  hke  glass 
in  the  furnace,  which  grows  to  a  greater  magnitude,  as  the 
breath  within  is  more  powerful,  and  the  heat  more  intense." 
We  may  well  think  what  those  ideas  must  be,  of  which  John- 
son's language,  so  solemn,  and  so  magnificent,  falls  short  in 
the  expression. 

Another  contemporary  ^  alludes  more  particularly  to  the 
kindness  and  goodness  that  swayed  Johnson's  pen.  After 
speaking  of  his  poem  "  Irene,"  he  says,  "  Together  with  the 
ablest  head,  he  seems  possessed  of  the  very  best  heart  at 
present  existing.  Every  line,  every  sentiment  that  issues 
from  his  pen,  tends  to  the  great  centre  of  all  his  views,  the 
promotion  of  virtue,  religion  and  humanity ;  nor  are  his  actions 
less  pointed  toward  the  same  great  end.  Benevolence,  charity, 
and  piety  are  the  most  striking  features  in  his  character ;  and 
while  his  writings  point  out  to  us  what  a  good  man  ought  to 
be,  his  own  conduct  sets  us  an  example  of  what  he  is."  It 
may  be  mentioned,  that  it  is  thought  to  be  rather  an  instance 
of  Johnson's  jealousy,  that  when  his  intimate  friend,  Dr. 
Hawksworth,  published  his  "  Almoran  and  Hamet,"  Dr.  John- 
son, being  asked  if  he  had  read  the  book,  replied,  as  it  is  re- 
ported, "No  I  I  like  the  man  too  well  to  read  his  book."  It 
is  very  easy  to  give  another  and  kinder  interpretation  to  these 
words.  Johnson  was  not  jealous.  <' Little  people,"  he  says, 
<'are  apt  to  be  jealous  :  but  they  should  not  be  jealous  ;  for 
they  ought  to  consider,  that  superior  attention  will  necessa- 
rily be  paid  to  fortune  or  rank."  Goldsmith  was  jealous  on 
several  occasions  ;  but  when  it  was  intimated  to  Burke  that 
some  of  the  company,  at  a  particular  gathering,  would  as  soon 
have  heard  him  talk  as  have  listened  to  Dr.  Johnson,  "Oh,  no," 
said  Burke,  "it  is  enough  for  me  to  have  rung  the  bell  to 
him." 

Alexander  Chalmers  depicts  Johnson's  rising  in  the  \\^orld,t 
"under  the  disadvantages  of  obscure  birth  and  unprepossessing 
appearance  and  manners,  as  significative  of  the  large  powers 
within.  "  That  such  a  man,"  he  says,  after  setting  forth 
some  adverse  qualities,  "  should  have  forced  his  way  into  the 

*  David  Erskine  Baker,  Esq.,  in  Biographia  Dramatica. 
t  Chalmers's  Biographical  Dictionary,  vol.  xix.  p.  74. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  387 

society  of  a  greater  number  of  eminent  characters  than  per- 
haps ever  gathered  round  an  individual ;  that  he  should  not 
only  have  gained  but  increased  their  respect  to  a  degree  of 
enthusiasm,  and  preserved  it  unabated  for  so  long  a  series  of 
years  ;  that  men  of  all  ranks  in  life,  and  of  the  highest  degree 
of  mental  excellence,  should  have  thought  it  a  duty,  and 
found  it  a  pleasure,  not  only  to  tolerate  his  occasional  rough- 
ness, but  to  study  his  humor,  and  submit  to  his  control,  to 
listen  to  him  with  the  submission  of  a  scholar,  and  consult 
him  with  the  hopes  of  a  client — all  this  surely  affords  the 
strongest  presumption  that  siich  a  man  was  remarkable  be- 
yond the  usual  standard  of  human  excellence."  Johnson  may 
have  indeed  been  rough  in  personal  appearance  and  occasional 
manners,  but  the  world  around  him  seems  to  have  been  of 
the  same  opinion  with  Bishop  Horne,=^  when  he  so  happily 
remarked  of  our  literary  hero,  "  To  reject  wisdom,  because 
the  person  of  him  who  communicates  it  is  uncouth,  and  his 
manners  are  inelegant ;  what  is  it,  but  to  throw  away  a  fine 
apple,  and  assign  for  a  reason  the  roughness  of  its  coat  ?" 

But  we  must  recollect,  that  it  was  not  only  Dr.  Johnson's 
intellect  that  invested  him  with  the  attractive  powers  de- 
scribed by  Chalmers,  but  it  was  his  religion  also  that  endeared 
him  to  contemporary  friends,  and  that  will  carry  his  name 
with  honor  and  veneration  to  remotest  posterities.  No  man 
more  thoroughly  exhibited  in  his  person  the  power  of  a  fixed 
belief  in  Christianity  combined  with  strong  natural  sense  and 
intellectual  vigor,  and  the  beneficial  influence  such  a  com- 
bination has  upon  the  individual,  and  through  him,  upon  man- 
kind at  large.  In  him  was  the  union  of  Gospel  light  with 
mtellectual  light  seen  in  more  useful  and  efficient  kind  and 
degree  than  in  our  almost  superhuman  poet,  Milton.  It  may 
be  a  question,  indeed,  whether  Milton  has  done  very  much 
for  the  cause  of  religion,  and  whether  the  impersonation  of 
Satan  may  not  rather  lead  many  minds  into  skepticism.  But 
leaving  such  comparison,  what  a  contrast  is  exhibited  between 
Johnson  and  Voltaire.  We  find  Johnson,  throujrhout  his 
whole  career,  swayed  by  the  influence  of  fixed  principles, 

*  In  an  Essay  in  the  "011a  Podrida,"'  by  the  E.ev,  Dr.  Hornc,  the 
accomplished  and  pious  Bishop  of  Norwich. 


388  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

acting  consistently  and  conscientiously  under  great  infirmities. 
The  paralytic  affection  under  which  he  labored  prevented  Mr. 
Budworth  from  engaging  him  as  an  assistant,  when  Budworth 
was  Master  of  the  Grammar  School  at  Brewood,  from  a  fear, 
he  said,  "  lest  the  boys  should  ridicule  him,  or  imitate  him." 
The  independence  of  his  career  at  Oxford  :  the  distress  he  en- 
countered at  his  outset  in  London,  and  the  risk  he  ran,  by 
his  intimacy  with  Savage,  of  falling  into  vicious  habits — the 
twenty-four  years  of  severe  labor  and  penury  which  he  must 
have  endured  from  the  time  that  he  left  college  until  the 
period  that  his  Dictionary  was  published — the  melancholy 
produced  and  continued  by  his  bodily  affliction — and  yet  to 
know  that  during  this  time  his  filial  piety,  conjugal  affection, 
kindnesses,  charities,  and  a  most  noble  independence  of  spirit, 
shone  forth  under  every  disadvantage  and  temptation  ;  this 
must  command  our  admiration,  our  respect,  and  love.  Vol- 
taire, endowed  with  fortune,  station,  easy  temperament  and 
genius  of  the  first  order — but  destitute  of  religious  feelings — 
living  only  to  amuse  and  corrupt  the  world.  Johnson  in  his 
humble  dwelling  living  to  instruct,  exalt,  and  purify  mankind. 
Johnson  not  leaving  behind  him  a  page  or  a  sentence  that 
deserved  to  be  blotted  out ;  and  Voltaire  scarcely  leaving  a 
page  worthy  to  be  preserved  as  contributing  to  the  welfare 
of  his  fellow-creatures.  Such  in  Johnson  was  the  power  and 
benefit  of  Christian  principles  in  union  with  intellectual  tal- 
ents ;  and  well  does  an  excellent  writer  of  modern  date,* 
observe,  "  If  there  be  on  earth  a  character  to  which  we  are 
justified  in  looking  with  feelings  of  awe  and  admiration,  it  is 
to  that  which  has  united  the  acquisitions  of  learning,  phi- 
losophy, and  high-minded  literature,  to  the  far  more  valuable 
accompaniments  of  humble  Christian  piety ;  it  is  to  the  Mil- 
tons,  the  Pascals,  the  Newtons,  the  Lockes,  the  Addisons,  the 
Johnsons  :  to  men,  who  with  a  deeper  insight  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  material  creation,  into  the  various  shades  of 
the  human  character,  and  into  the  treasures  of  ancient  litera- 
ture, tha7i  ever  adorned  the  cause  of  infidelity,  looked  up  to 
the  holy  fountain  of  truth  only,  that  they  might  worship,  and 

*  Sermons  on  some  of  the  Leading  Principles  of  Christianity :  by 
Bishop  Shuttleworth.     1829.     Second  Edition,  Serm.  xviii.  p.  498. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  389 

devote  the  whole  efforts  of  their  mighty  minds  to  the  service 
of  the  religion,  of  jnirity,  and  of  humility  /"  Yes  ;  Shuttle- 
worth  is  right,  such  men  as  these  advance  the  cause  of  you, 
O  learned  Andrewes  ;  O  blessed  Ken  ;  O  holy  Beveridge  ;  O 
wise  and  sagacious  Leslie ;  =^  and  God  be  praised,  your  days 
are  not  past. 

In  Johnson  was  strength  of  character.  He  was  poor,  very 
poor,  for  a  long  period  of  his  life  ;  and  even  from  the  time  of 
his  obtaining  his  pension  in  the  year  1763  (the  year  in  which 
Bos  well  was  introduced  to  him)  to  the  day  of  his  death,  his 
circumstances,  though  easy,  were  not  large,  yet  he  never 
thrust  forward  this  his  poverty.  He  was  not  like  Antisthenes, 
the  affected  philosopher,  who  was  always,  in  company,  turn- 
ing the  threadbare  side  of  his  garment  outward,  and  which 
drew  the  cutting  sarcasm  from  the  wise  and  good  Socrates, 
when  he  said  to  him,  "  Wilt  thou  never  cease  to  expose  thy 
pride  and  vanity  ?"  No,  his  was  the  poverty  that  complained 
not,  a  courageous  poverty,  that  rejects  all  aid  and  sympathy 
when  itself  can  set  to  work.  "  Milton,"  he  remarks,!  in  re- 
lating how  the  author  of  "  Paradise  Lost"  also  sought  the 
office  of  a  schoolmaster,  "  was  not  a  man  who  could  become 
mean  by  a  mean  employment  :"  and  such  may  be  said  of 
Johnson  all  through  his  life,  that  no  mean  style  of  living 
could  ever  make  him  mean  in  his  mind  or  heart.  Anecdotes 
have  served  much  to  illustrate  this  part  of  his  character. 
He  must  have  been  in  his  sterner  humor,  when  he  replied  to 
Boswell's  inquiry  where  Knox  was  buried,  ='  I  hope  in  the 
highway  :"  and  when  told  that  one  of  the  steeples  of  ancient 
St.  Andrews  was  in  danger,  wished  it  not  to  be  taken  down, 
"  for,"  said  he,  *'  it  may  fall  on  some  of  the  posterity  of  John 
Knox  :  and  no  great  matter,"  But  in  a  benignant  and  more 
usual  mood,  when,  on  its  being  said  that  Clarke  was  very 
wicked  for  going  so  much  into  the  Arian  system,  he  answer- 
ed, "  I  will  not  say  he  was  wicked,  he  might  be  mistaken." 
See  how  he  settles  the  character  of  the  eloquent  and  highly 
gifted  Lord  Bolingbroke,  the  idol  of  Dean  Swift,  Pope,  and 
many  more  :  "  Sir,"  he  said,  "  Bohngbroke  was  a  scoundrel 
and  a  coward  :  a  scoundrel,  for  charging  a  blunderbuss  against 

*  See  Jones's  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  240.        t  In  his  Life  of  Milton. 


390  CLOSE  OF  DLL  JOHiNSOiN'S  LIFE. 

religion  and  morality  :  a  coward,  because  he  had  not  resolu- 
tion to  fire  it  off  himself,  but  left  half-a-crown  to  a  beggarly- 
Scotchman  to  draw  the  trigger  after  his  death."  Of  a  more 
obscure  person,  who  maintained  there  was  no  distinction  be- 
tween virtue  and  vice,  he,  in  a  common  sense  way,  said, 
"  When  he  leaves  our  house,  let  us  count  our  spoons."  How 
prostrate  does  he  lay  (as  has  been  already  alluded  to)  the 
celebrated  Lord  Chesterfield,  in  the  letter  addressed  to  him 
after  his  Dictionary  had  appeared  !  "What  a  quietus,  too,  he 
gave  to  Macpherson,  the  publisher  of"  Ossian,"  and  to  Soame 
Jenyns,  "  Ha,  I  thought  I  had  given  hivi  enough  of  it  I" 
And  yet  what  a  branding  wit  in  this  "  great  and  venerable" 
character  :  for  what  said  Garrick  of  this  majestic  teacher  of 
moral  and  religious  wisdom  ?  "  Rabelais  and  all  other  wits," 
exclaimed  the  British  Roscius,  "  are  nothing  compared  M'ith 
him.  You  may  be  diverted  by  them  ;  but  Johnson  gives  you 
a  forcible  hug,  and  shakes  laughter  out  of  you,  whether  you 
will  or  no."  Christianity  seems  to  have  so  softened  his  rug- 
ged nature,  as  well  as  exalted  it,  that  while  he  beat  down 
the  proud  and  the  strong,  he  was  the  unflinching  friend  of  the 
poor,  the  humble,  and  the  weak.  No  man  ever  put  in  prac- 
tice more  completely  the  sentiment,  which  so  few  have  power 
to  carry  out,  of  that  incomparable  line  of  the  Roman  poet : 

"  Parcere  subjectus,  et  debellare  superbos." 

See  him  in  his  own  small  house  sheltering  poor  blind 
Mrs.  Williams,  poor  Mrs.  Desmoulins,  poor  Levett :  and  re- 
member all  his  kindness  and  condescension  to  Francis  Barber. 
See  him  befriending  in  their  distress  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dodd, 
Baretti,  and  others :  and  think  of  that  weeping,  and  praying, 
and  parting  with  Catharine  Chambers.  Look  to  the  innu- 
merable Prefaces  and  Dedications  to  works  of  inferior  authors, 
and  his  patience  in  correcting  and  counseling,  yet  scrupling 
not  to  tell  a  dunce  that  he  was  a  dunce.  See  with  what 
honest  and  hearty  sympathy  he  befriended  those  who  had 
labored  under  him  in  compiling  his  Dictionary.  "  Some  of 
them,"  observes  the  Rev.  J.  S.  M.  Anderson,*^  "  were  engaged 

^  Addresses  on  Miscellaneous  Subjects ;  address  on  Dr.  Johnson, 
p.  87.     By  the  Rev.  James  S.  M.  Anderson,  of  Brighton. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  391 

ill  literary  undertakings  on  their  own  accoimt ;  some  were 
sick  and  weakly  in  body  ;  all  were  poor.  And  in  Johnson 
they  all  found  a  friend.  He  wrote  for  those  to  whom  the 
service  of  his  pen  was  useful ;  he  visited  those  who  were  in 
sickness;  yea,  even  out  of  his  penury,  he  found  means  to 
alleviate  the  yet  more  pinching  agony  of  their  distress." 
Though  rough  to  a  few  who  required  roughness,  well  might 
he  be  justified  in  saying,  out  of  the  promptings  of  the  bene- 
volent heart  within,  "  I  wonder  how  I  should  have  any  ene- 
mies ;  for  I  do  harm  to  nobody.  "=^  Not  only  was  his  good 
nature  manifest  in  the  club  room  when  crying  out,  "  Who's 
for  Poonsh?"  but  in  the  humble  garret,  or  the  chilling  street, 
his  charity  was  known.  And  like  Melancthon,  he  could 
hold  a  book  in  one  hand,  and  rock  a  cradle  with  the  other : 
or,  like  Bishop  Wilson,  he  could  discourse  moral  thunder, 
and  order  penance  and  impri.sonraent,  and  yet  be  doling  out 
an  assortment  of  spectacles  to  needy  old  women, f  who  blessed 
even  the  passing  shadow  of  the  man. 

His  tour  to  the  Hebrides  shows  him  to  have  been  a  man 

*  On  Johnson  saying  this,  Boswell  immediately  remarked  to  him, 
"  In  the  first  place,  sir,  you  will  be  pleased  to  recollect  that  you  set 
out  with  attacking  the  Scotch ;  so  you  got  a  whole  nation  for  your 
enemies."  Johnson. — "Why,  I  own  that  by  ray  definition  of  Oats  I 
meant  to  vex  them."  Boswell- — "  Pray,  sir,  can  you  trace  the  cause 
of  your  antipathy  to  the  Scotch  ?"  Johnson. — '"I  can  not,  sir."  Bos- 
well.— "  Old  ]Mr.  Sheridan  says,  it  was  because  they  sold  Charles  the 
First."  Johnson. — "  Then,  sir,  old  Mr.  Sheridan  has  found  out  a  very 
good  reason." 

Johnson's  definition  of  Oats  was,  "  A  grain  which  in  England  is 
generally  given  to  horses,  but  in  Scotland  supports  the  people."  Lord 
Elibank  made  a  happy  retort  on  this;  "Yes,"  said  he,  "and  where 
else  will  you  see  such  horses  and  such  men  ?" 

It  w^as  pleasant  to  Boswell,  afterward,  to  find  oats,  the  "  food  of 
horses"  so  much  used  as  the  "food  of  men"  in  Johnson's  own  town  of 
Lichfield :  there  he  saw  oat  ale^  and  oat  cakes. 

Dr.  Johnson  gave  greater  cause  of  offense,  we  should  think,  when 
he  compared  the  learning  of  the  Scotch  as  being  like  to  "  Bread  in  a 
besieged  town  ;  where  every  man  gets  a  little,  but  no  man  gets  a  full 
meal."  Yet  he  often  complimented  the  Scotch  clergy  on  their  learn- 
ing and  information  ;  and,  at  all  events,  his  comparison  would  not  apply 
in  the  present  day. 

t  See  Hugh  Stowell's  Life  of  Bishop  "Wilson,  p.  88.  Sec  Alexander 
Knox's  Remains,  vol,  ii.  p.  301-304. 


392  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

of  great  enterprise  and  courage,  notwithstanding  his  infirmi- 
ties, with  a  constant  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes.  Thomson 
the  poet,  in  London,  could  sing  of  rural  scenes :  but  Johnson, 
whose  heart  was  in  London  also,  could  travel  into  the  rough 
places  of  the  earth.  Of  one  place  in  which  he  slept,  he 
says,  "I  undressed  myself,  and  felt  my  feet  in  the  mire.  The 
bed  stood  upon  the  bare  earth,  which  a  long  course  of  rain 
had  softened  to  a  puddle. "=*  He  describes  himself  and  party 
as  always  struggling  with  some  obstruction  or  other  :  and 
we  find  him  in  places  of  which  he  says,  any  one  might  have 
wandered  among  the  rocks  till  he  had  perished  with  hard- 
ship, before  he  could  have  found  either  food  or  shelter.! 
Yet  he  complained  not :  for  instead  of  remembering  his  snug 
quarters  in  Bolt-court,  or  his  love  of  contemplating  the  tide 
of  human  life  in  Fleet-street,  he  remarks,  "  Yet  what  are 
these  hillocks  to  the  ridges  of  Taurus,  or  these  spots  of  wiid- 
ness  to  the  deserts  of  America  ?"  Boswell  made  an  apposite 
remark  on  one  occasion  when  Johnson  was  placed  upon  one 
of  the  ponies  called  shelties,  just  caught  wild  from  the  heath, 
with  a  straw  halter  put  upon  its  head  :  "  I  wish,  sir,"  said 
Boswell,  "  the  club  saw  you  in  this  attitude."  At  another 
time  there  was  no  saddle  or  bridle  for  the  sheltie,  but  only  a 
halter,  which  made  Dr.  Johnson  observe,  that  "  he  longed  to 
get  to  a  country  of  saddles  and  bridles."  Yet,  during  all 
his  difficulties  and  dangers,  he  behaved  with  great  courtesy, 
and  even  delicacy,  in  the  huts  of  the  poorest  persons  :  took 
pleasure  in  little  things  :  noted  down  all  the  customs  of  the 
country  :  showed  a  minute  knowledge  of  various  arts  :  perused 
all  the  books  he  could  get  hold  of:   wrote  Latin  verses  :   ex- 

*  Bcswell  gives  us  a  picture  of  an  upstairs  room,  which  had  some 
deals  laid  across  the  joists,  as  a  kind  of  ceiling.  There  w^ere  two  beds 
in  the  room,  and  a  Nvoman's  gown  was  hung  on  a  ropo  to  make  a  cur- 
tain of  separation  between  them.  We  had  much  hesitation,  whether 
to  undress,  or  to  lie  down  with  our  clothes  on.  I  said  at  last,  'Til 
plunge  in  ;  there  will  be  less  harbor  for  vermin  about  me  when  I  am 
stripped."  Dr.  Johnson  said,  he  was  like  one  hesitating  whether  to 
go  into  a  cold  bath.  At  last  he  resolved  to  go.  I  observed  he  might 
serve  a  campaign.  Johnson. — "I  could  do  all  that  can  be  done  by 
patience;  whether  I  should  have  strength  enough,  I  know  not." 

t  His  own  account  of  his  Journey,  p.  88. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  393 

pressed  many  theological  opinions  :  and  fairly  roughed  it  among 
a  haughty  people,  tenacious  of  dignity  ;  one  of  whom  asked 
hira  if  he  was  one  of  the  Johnst07is  of  Glencoe,  or  of  Ardiia- 
murchan  I      The  author  of  the  "E^ambler"  was  as  nobody. 

Dr.  Johnson's  religion  was  evangelical,  though  not  accord- 
ing to  the  modern  conventional  meaning  of  that  term.  He 
was  more  Arminian  than  Calvinistic ;  but  we  may  best 
describe  him  as  a  man  who  looked  for  salvation,  by  the 
mercy  of  God,  through  faith  in  the  atonement  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  :  and  who  would  feel  that  good  w^orks  were  in- 
dispensable evidences  of  a  genuine  faith.  Through  the  greater 
portion  of  his  life  religion  was  rather  an  awful  than  a  pleas- 
urable matter  in  his  mind,  and  hence  Bishop  Jebb  has  been 
led  to  remark,^  "  To  multitudes  that  are  both  honest  and 
serious,  religion  is  not  pleasurable  :  it  is  a  thing  to  them 
unmixedly  awful  :  they  never  dream  of  seeking  recreation 
from  it ;  they  hold  it  as  a  solemn,  but  rather  painful  duty, 
and  they  get  away  from  it  as  soon  as  they  can.  Such  people 
do  not,  and  can  not,  taste  the  beauties  of  Scripture :  yet  they 
have  real,  though,  doubtless  imperfect  faith.  Doctor  John- 
son was  of  this  number  :  w^iat  he  writes  of  the  Paradise 
Lost,  he  would  have  said  of  Scripture,  if  reverence  permit- 
ted '  Its  perusal  is  a  duty  rather  than  a  pleasure.  We  read 
Milton  for  instruction,  retire  harassed  and  over-burdened,  and 
look  elsewhere  for  recreation  ;  we  desert  our  master  and  seek 
for  companions.'  But,  by  those  whose  faith  is  strong,  whose 
religious  views  are  bright  and  cheerful,  &c.  &c.,  of  such  men 
the  sacred  volume  will  become  the  chosen  pleasure-ground." 

The  late  lamented  Bishop  Shirley,  who  was  one  of  the 
best  specimens  of  the  (so  called)  evangelical  school,  also  gives 
this  opinion,!  "  I  think  that  Johnson  was  an  example  of  a 
man  who  was  aiming  at  details  rather  than  principles  in 
religion.  He  was  dissatisfied  with  the  "  corrupt  fruit,"  and 
pruned  the  branches,  and  was  still  dissatisfied,  because  more 
corrupt  fruit  was  again  produced  :  and  all  was  struggle,  and 
sorrow,  and  bondage.      He  forgot  that,   as  a  Christian,  he 

*  Life  of  Bishop  Jebb,  Letter  Ixvi. 

t  ^Memoirs  of  BLshop  Shirley,  by  Archdeacon  Hill,  p.  425.  This  is 
a  pleasing  memoir,  filled  with  refined  sentiments. 


394  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

was  not  under  the  law,  but  under  grace  ;  and  it  was  not 
until  that  grace  (the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ)  got  possession 
of  his  soul,  and  drove  him  toward  God  in  harmony  of  mind, 
by  its  assimilating  influence,  that  he  had  peace,  or  joy,  or 
liberty,  or  spiritual  power  to  have  victory,  and  to  triumph 
over  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil."  Dr.  Shirley  can 
not  but  allow  that  all  was  well  at  the  last  with  Dr.  John- 
son ;  but  neither  he  nor  Bishop  Jebb  sufliciently  remark  on 
the  constraining  and  directing  power  of  his  religious  principles 
— for  pj-inciples  of  the  most  influencing  kind  he  undoubted- 
ly cherished  in  his  heart  of  hearts.  He  was  a  great  and 
awful  man  in  every  thing  that  he  undertook — in  conversation, 
in  writing,  in  duty — and  the  same  spirit  that  nerved  him  in 
these,  accompanied  him  also  in  his  religion  ;  which  in  him 
was  real,  was  commanding,  was  lasting  ;  and  if  the  garment 
was  of  sombre  hue,  its  texture  was  enduring,  and  always  fit 
for  service.  "  The  hope  of  the  Christian  was  his,"  says  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Anderson,  "  and  its  reality  was  then"  (in  his  last 
illness)  "proved." 

We  have  shown  that  his  religion  was  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Church  of  England — humbling,  yet  edify- 
ing. In  defense  of  written  prayers  he  utters  this  admirable 
sense  :^  "It  is  now  universally  confessed,  that  men  pray  as 
they  speak  on  other  occasions,  according  to  the  general 
measure  of  their  abilities  and  attainments.  Whatever  each 
may  think  of  a  form  prescribed  by  another,  he  can  not  but 
believe  that  he  can  himself  compose  by  study  and  meditation 
a  better  prayer  than  will  rise  in  his  mind  at  a  sudden  call : 
and  if  he  has  any  hope  of  supernatural  help,  why  may  he 
not  as  well  receive  it  when  he  writes  as  when  he  speaks  ?" 
In  his  Sermons  written  for  Dr.  Taylor,  we  find  most  excel- 
lent sentiments  and  sterling  sense ;  sentiments  and  sense  that 
in  this  our  day  are  being  revived  ;  f  and  if  with  moderation 

*  In  his  "  Journey  to  the  Western  Islands,"  p.  244. 
t  We  may  be  reminded  of  a  smart  epigram  in  this  place — 
"  The  antiquarian's  skill,  how  bright ! 
Who  out  of  darkness  formeth  light : 
And  makes  this  contradiction  true. 
That  soraethinjr  old  is  somcthins;  new. 

Gentleman'' s  Magazine^  1782,  p.  40. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  395 

and  discretion,  can  not  fail  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the 
church  and  her  sound  and  genuine  Christianity.  How 
wisely  does  he  speak  of  the  study  of  antiquity  I  "  The 
study  of  antiquity  is  laborious,"  he  says,^  "  and  to  despise 
what  we  can  not,  or  will  not  understand,  is  a  much  more 
expeditious  way  to  reputation."  Again  :  '<  With  regard  to 
the  order  and  government  of  the  Primitive  church,  we  may 
doubtless  follow  their  (the  Ancient  Christians')  authority  with 
perfect  security  ;  they  could  not  possibly  be  ignorant  of  laws 
executed,  and  customs  practiced,  by  themselves  ;  nor  would 
they,  even  supposing  them  corrupt,  serve  any  interests  of  their 
own,  by  handing  down  false  accounts  to  posterity.  We  are 
therefore  to  inquire  from  them,  the  different  orders  established 
in  the  ministry  from  the  Apostolic  ages  :  the  different  employ- 
ments of  each,  and  their  several  ranks,  subordinations,  and 
degrees  of  authority.  From  their  writings,  ive  are  to  vin- 
dicate the  establishment  of  our  church,  and  by  the  same 
writings  are  those  ivlw  differ  from  its,  in  these  ijarticidars, 
to  defend  their  conduct'^  Yes  ;  to  this  touchstone  we  must 
come  to  seek  for  the  practical  in  proof  of  the  speculative. 
And  how  wholesome  is  this  rule,  and  most  confounding  to 
the  Church  of  Rome  ;  "  Every  thing  that  was  declared  by 
the  inspired  writers  to  be  necessary  for  salvation,  must  have 
been  carefully  recorded,  and  therefore  what  we  find  no  traces 
of  in  the  Scripture,  or  in  the  early  Fathers,  as  most  of  the 
peculiar  tenets  of  the  Romish  church,  must  certainly  be  con- 
cluded to  be  not  necessary.  Thus,  by  consulting  first  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  next  the  writers  of  the  Primitive 
church,  we  shall  make  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  will  of 
God  :  thus  shall  we  discover  the  good  way,  and  find  that 
rest  for  our  souls  which  will  amply  recompense  our  studies 
and  inquiries."  This  is  the  way  to  be  settled  and  grounded 
in  the  truth;  and  "when  I  think  of  these  things,"  saj^s 
Alexander  Knox  of  unstable  views  of  men,  "  how  I  rejoice  in 
my  settledness." 

Speaking  of  sects  in  religion,  in  another  Sermon,!  he  ob- 
serves  with    acute   discernment,    "  He   whose   opinions   are 

*  Vol.  i.  Serra.  vii.  p.  154,  &c. 
t  Sermon  xi.  vol.  i.  p.  226. 


396  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

censured,  feels  the  reputation  of  his  understanding  impaired  ; 
he,  whose  party  is  opposed,  finds  his  influence  resisted,  and 
perhaps  his  power,  or  his  profit,  in  danger  of  diminution." 
This  is  said  of  the  proud  sectarian ;  but  he  goes  on  to 
remark,  "  That  men  of  different  opinions  should  live  at  peace, 
is  the  true  effect  of  that  humility,  which  makes  each  esteem 
others  better  than  himself,  and  of  that  moderation,  which 
reason  approves,  and  charity  commands."  He  then  counsels 
Christians,  in  the  words  of  his  text,  to  be  all  of  one  mind, 
and  certainly  unity  must  be  looked  to  as  the  grand  preserva- 
tive of  the  Christian  religion.  "  My  regard  for  unity,"  said 
the  intellectual  and  saint-like  Fletcher  of  Madeley,  at  a  time 
when  he  was  thought  to  be  in  the  last  stage  of  a  consumption, 
"  recovers  my  drooping  spirits,  and  adds  new  strength  to  my 
wasted  body ;  I  stop  at  the  brink  of  the  grave,  over  which  T 
bend,  and,  as  the  blood  oozing  from  my  decayed  lungs  does 
not  permit  me  vocally  to  address  my  contending  brethren,  by 
means  of  my  pen  I  will  ask  them,  if  they  can  properly 
receive  the  Holy  Commu7iion  while  they  loillfully  remain  in 
disunion  with  their  brethren,  from  whom  controversy  has 
needlessly  parted  them  ?"*  And  the  celebrated  Adam  Clarke 
enjoyed  a  uniting  spirit, ■•■  though  he  was  not  in  union  with 
the  church,  the  res  angusta  domi  having  alone  prevented  his 
being  brought  up  as  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England. 
"  Of  the  Established  Church,"  he  writes, $  "  I  have  never 
been  a  secret  enemy,  nor  a  silent  friend.  What  I  feel 
toward  it,  the  -ingels  are  welcome  to  ponder :   and  what  I 

*   Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  382. 

t  The  pious  Bishop  Shirley,  than  whom  few  men  were  in  the  way 
of  greater  experience  in  the  matter,  while  he  states,  that  "the  clergy 
of  the  Church  of  England  are  gaining  year  by  year  in  spirituality, 
devotedness,  and  power;"  bears   this   melancholy  testimony;   "The 
Dissenters  are  shrinking    into  rancorous  sectarian  agitators."     It  is 
probable,  that  some  value  politics  more  than  religion,  and  would 
"  Pour  the  sweet  milk  of  concord  into  Hell, 
Uproar  the  universal  peace,  confound 
All  unity  on  earths 
But  to  such  let  Dr.  Adam  Clarke's  censure  on  political  preaching  be 
strongly  recommended. 

t  See  his  admirable  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  in  his  own 
Memoirs. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  397 

have  spoken  or  written  concerning  it,  and  in  its  favor,  I 
believe  I  shall  never  bo  even  tempted  to  retract.  Being 
bred  up  in  its  bosom,  I  early  drank  in  its  salutary  doctrines 
and  spirit;"  and  he  proceeds  to  say  as  much  in  deep  regard 
for  "  Mother  Church,"  as  he  terms  it,  as  Dr.  Johnson  him- 
self could  have  expressed  in  his  hours  of  most  cordial  attach- 
ment and  warmth.  And  as  ildam  Clarke  held  kindly  feel- 
ings toward  the  church,  so  Dr.  Johnson  was  not  unfrequently 
liberally  inclined  toward  those  who  differed  from  him.  When 
visiting  an  aged  and  venerable  Presbyterian  minister  (Mac- 
lean) in  Scotland,  he  records,  "  I  lost  some  of  his  good- will, 
by  treating  a  heretical  writer  with  more  regard  than,  in  his 
opinion,  a  heretic  could  deserve  :"  and  he  adds  of  Mr. 
Maclean  himself,  "  I  honored  his  orthodoxy,  and  did  not 
much  censure  his  asperity."  The  heresy  must  have  been  on 
some  point  on  which  Churchman  and  Presbyterian  were 
agreed.  The  Church  of  England  can  well  afford  to  be 
generous  :  she  is  founded  on  a  rock  from  whence  she  can, 
with  every  advantage  to  herself,  extend  a  hand  of  sympathy 
and  help  to  the  weaker  and  less  discreet.  "  JVe  do  not 
render  evil  for  evil,'''  observes  the  Rev.  Mr.  Agutter,*  who 
preached  a  funeral  sermon  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  on 
the  death  of  Dr.  Johnson,  "  we  grant  the  Pwomanist  a  tolera- 
tion, which,  if  they  had  the  supremacy  they  would  not  grant 
to  us.  We  do  not  remember  and  repay  the  violence  and  the 
oppression  which  the  Church  of  England  was  once  made  to 
suffer,  when  the  Dissenters  had  the  upper  hand."  But, 
after  all,  Johnson's  religion  was  not  a  religion  of  hostility  to 
Romanism  or  Dissent,  so  much  as  it  was  a  religion  that 
craved  after  a  good  life,  and  sought  the  salvation  of  the  soul 
through  the  faith  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  What  he  says  of 
Dr.  Sydenham,  might  have  been  written  of  himself,  and  far 
more  :  namely,  that  "his  chief  view  was  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind, and  the  chief  motive  of  all  his  actions  the  will  of  God, 
whom  he  mentions  with  reverence,  well  becoming  the  most 
enlightened  and  penetrating  mind  ! 

We  can  least  support  Dr.  Johnson  in  his  fear  of  death,  oi 
rather  of  eternity.      The  fear  of  death  is  implanted  in  the 
*  Sermons  on  Various  Ocea.sions,  by  Rev.  William  Aguttcr.  p.  240. 


398  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

nature  of  man  for  sufficient  reasons,  but  it  is  to  be  overcome 
by  the  Christian,  and  we  dare  not  lower  the  standard  of 
Christian  joy  and  peace.  Men  commonly  do  not  like  to 
think  of  death,  neither  do  they  desire  to  be  told  of  its  pre- 
paratory warnings  and  weaknesses.  When  Gil  Bias  had 
obtained  the  situation  of  private  secretary,  &c.  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Grenada,  and  by  his  admiration  of  his  patron's 
sermons  and  discourses  had  become  his  factotum,  the  Arch- 
bishop desired  him  to  let  him  know  when  he  perceived  his 
Grace  to  fall  off  in  his  energetic  addresses.  The  archbishop 
has  an  apoplectic  attack  from  which  he  partially  recovers  &o 
as  to  be  able  to  preach,  but  preaches  very  indifferently.  Gil 
Bias,  according  to  order,  ventures  to  take  an  opportunity  of 
mentioning  to  his  Grace  that  he  perceived  a  diminution  of 
strength  and  vigor  in  his  discourses.  The  archbishop  re- 
ceives the  intimation  quietly,  but  sends  Gil  Bias  to  his 
treasurer  to  receive  a  hundred  ducats,  and  thus  dismisses 
him,  "  Adieu,  Mr.  Gil  Bias,  I  wish  you  all  possible  prosperity 
with  a  little  more  good  taste. "^ 

Dr.  Johnson's  fear  of  death  might  arise  from  either  oi^  two 
causes,  or  from  both  combined — a  constitutional  tempera- 
ment, in  which  he  is  the  object  of  pity  rather  than  of  ad- 
miration— all  his  lifetime  subject  to  bondage  through  this 
fear  of  death — or  else  a  deficiency  of  faith  in  the  goodness 
and  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  latter  view  we 
may  presume  is  much  established  by  the  fact  that,  as  his  end 
drew  near,  and  his  faith  was  strengthened;  he  seems  to  have 
viewed  it  with  far  less  dread  :  and  we  may  think,  too,  it  is 
naturally  enough  inferred  from  the  way  in  which  he  spoke 
of  the  "  work  of  righteousness,"  as  if  it  were  more  the  result 
of  his  own  efforts  than  of  the  gift  of  God.  We  can  not  help 
supposing  that  a  more  correct  and  lively  apprehension  of 
Ephes.  ii.  8,  would  have  been  the  true  and  effectual  remedy 
for  all  his  fears.  Let  us,  in  all  tenderness,  consider  it  as  a 
weakness  to  be  pitied,  and  not  an  imitable  excellence.  Un- 
doubtedly it  would  not  affect  his  salvation.      Charles  Simeon, 


^  "  Je  vons  souhaite  toutes  sortes  de  prosperite  avec  un  peu  plus 
de  gout." — Gil  Blas^  vol.  iii.  12mo.  edition. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  399 

m  writing  of  a  person  who  had  made  use  of  some  very  hope- 
ful terms  in  her  last  hours,  says,*  "  I  lay  no  stress  on  those 
expressions  of  hope  Avhich  I  have  been  speaking  of,  as  though 
tlieij  were  necessary  to  her  salvation;''  yet  he  hailed  them 
with  joy  as  coming  from  one  exceedingly  diffident  of  her 
state.  And  of  himself  he  said,  in  an  admirable  letter  to  the 
Bishop  of  Calcutta,  "  I  long  to  be  in  my  proper  place,  my 
hand  on  my  mouth,  and  my  mouth  in  the  dust.  I  would 
rather  have  my  seed-time  here,  and  wait  for  my  harvest  until 
I  myself  am  carried  to  the  granary  of  heaven.  T  feel  this  to 
be  safe  ground.  Here  I  can  not  err."t  And  of  the  doctrine 
of  assurance,  Wesley  said,|  "  Some  are  fond  of  this  expres- 
sion :   I  am  not :   I  hardly  ever  use  it I  believe  a  few, 

but  very  few.  Christians  have  an  assurance  from  God  of  ever- 
lasting salvation  ;  and  this  is  the  thing  which  the  Apostle 
terms  the  '  plerophory,'  or  full  assurance  of  hope."  The  pro- 
found and  philosophical  Cudworth,  in  a  sermon  on  John  ii. 
o,k  says,  "  The  best  assurance  that  any  one  can  have  of  his 
interest  in  God  is  the  conformity  of  his  soul  to  God  :"  and, 
in  like  manner,  Dr.  Hampden  (Bishop  of  Hereford)  says, 
<'  The  reality  of  the  Divine  presence  by  the  Spirit  with  the 
believer,  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  gross  imaginations 
of  the  heart  of  man.  Their  feeling  of  joy  is  the  result  of 
conduct,  harmonizing  with  their  belief,  and  strengthening 
their  belief  by  its  accordance.  It  is  not  the  work  of  a  mo- 
ment— but  of  days — of  years." II  This  is  the  true  ground 
of  assurance,  but  even  this  Dr.  Johnson  had  not  vividly  and 
continually.  Therefore  was  his  happiness  impaired.  Let 
us  not  be  accessory  to  an  impression,  that  a  low  state  of  love, 
and  joy,  and  peace,  is  intended  to  be  the  Christian's  position 
upon  earth.  Undoubtedly  it  often  is  so.  But  whenever  it 
is,  is  it  not  usually  (except  in  constitutionally  exempt  cases)  re- 
solvable into  want  of  faith,  or  inconsistency  of  conduct  ?  Of 
this  we  may  be  confident,  as  we  can  be  of  any  thing  we 

*   Simeon's  Memoirs,  3d  edition,  p.  181.  t  Page  489. 

X  Southey's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  ii.  p.  182. 

§   The  doctrine  of  Assurance,  by  the  way,  is  untenable  by  this  text, 
which  is  often  adduced  in  its  favor ;  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
II  Parochial  Sermons.     By  Rev.  Renn  D.  Hampden,  p.  112. 


400  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

knoAV,  that,  making  every  allowance  for  all  sorts  and  kinds 
of  depression,  the  state  of  feeling  which  is  both  commanded 
to  every  Christian,  and  promised  also,  and  uniformly  repre- 
sented as  attainable,  and  as  actually  attained  by  many,  is 
one  far  more  happy  than  can  be  consistent  with  Dr.  John- 
son's fears.  It  is  evident  that  he  did  not  rejoice  in  the  Lord 
alway — that  he  did  not  walk  through  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death  without  fearing  evil — that  the  presence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  character  of  Comforter  was  not  greatly 
vouchsafed  to  him  ;  and,  in  all  sincerity,  we  must  not  hold 
up  this  state  of  mind  as  an  example,  but  rather  as  a  warning 
to  others.  We  must  not  be  dazzled  by  his  superior  talents 
and  moral  excellency  so  as  to  suppose  that  this  defect  is  nec- 
essary or  imitable.  Probably  if  he  could  now  express  his  own 
altered  sentiments,  he  would  at  once  denounce  himself  as  one 
"  of  little  faith,"  who  never  needed  to  have  had  this  cause  to 
"  doubt,"  but  was  led  to  do  so  by  disproportionate  attention  to 
the  obligations  of  man,  as  compared  with  the  goodness,  and 
sufficiency,  and  imparted  power  of  the  all-sufficient  Saviour. 
Still  let  no  man  presume,  let  no  man  censure  Dr.  John- 
son, for  great  light  was  within  him,  and  his  love  to  his  fel- 
low-creatures certainly  sprang  out  of  his  love  to  God.  Let 
not  the  multitude  who  have  feelings  of  assurance,  sudden  as 
they  are  groundless,  lift  up  their  heads  and  imagine  them- 
selves to  be  something  when  they  are  nothing.  "  The  valet," 
says  Carlyle,  "does  not  know  a  hero  when  he  sees  him." 
Doctor  Johnson  was  entitled  to  far  greater  degrees  of  happy 
feeling  than  he  actually  possessed,  or  his  humility  and  sense 
of  unworthiness  would  permit  him  to  express.  "  A  noble 
unconsciousness  is  in  him.  He  does  not  engrave  Truth  on 
his  watch  seal  :  no,  but  he  stands  by  truth,  speaks  by  it,  works 
and  lives  by  it."^  See  him  in  the  Church  of  St.  Clement 
Danes, t  pronouncing  "  with  tremulous  earnestness,"  the 
awful  petition  in  the  Liturgy  :  "In  the  hour  of  death,  and  at 
the  day  of  judgment,  good  Lord,  deliver  us  I"  and  all  through 

*  Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,  p.  289. 

f  "  That  church  of  St.  Clement  Danes,"  observes  Carlyle,  p.  283, 
"  where  Johnson  still  worshiped  in  the  era  of  Voltaire,  is  to  me  a 
venerable  place.^'' 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  401 

life  endeavoring  to  attain  the  reality  of  religion  ;  and  attain- 
ing it  too,  though  not  in  all  its  freedom  and  joy.  Yet  was 
this  great  mournful  Johnson  a  right  valiant  man.=^  He 
sought  virtue,  and  without  virtue  there  is  not  evidence  of  a 
sincere  faith.  "  Be  good,  be  virtuous,  my  lord,  you  must 
come  to  this  ;"  were  among  the  last  words  of  the  converted 
Lord  Lyttelton  to  Lord  Valentia.  "  We  must  all  come  to 
this,"  was  ever  Johnson's  reflection  on  witnessing  a  death- 
bed, or  hearing  of  death,  and  it  was  the  voice  that  went  forth 
from  his  own  dying  hour.  Yet  full  as  he  was  of  good  works, 
he  did  not  say  with  Bishop  Pearce  (it  may  be  harmlessly 
enough),  on  being  asked  one  day  how  he  could  live  with  so 
little  nutriment,  "  I  live,"  said  the  bishop,  "  upon  the  recol- 
lection of  an  innocent  and  well  spent  life,  which  is  my  only 
sustenance."!  Let  not  this  be  despised,  for  doubtless  the 
bishop  reviewed  his  past  life  in  the  spirit  of  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  articles  of  the  Church  of  England.  In  such  a 
spirit  spake  the  pious  George  Herbert  on  his  death-bed,  when, 
to  Mr.  Woodnot,  who  took  occasion  to  remind  him  of  his 
rebuilding  Lay  ton  church,  and  his  many  acts  of  mercy,  he 
made  answer,  saying,  "  They  be  good  works  if  they  be 
sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  not  otherwise."  And 
Wesley's  rebuke  was  just,  as  in  the  following  anecdote. J 
For,  we  are  told,  that  Dr.  Hales,  Rector  of  Killesandra  in 
Ireland,  happening  to  tell  Mr.  Wesley,  that  when  Bishop 
Chevenix  (of  Waterford)  in  his  old  age  was  congratulated  on 
recovering  from  a  fever,  the  bishop  replied,  "  I  believe  I  am 
not  long  for  this  world.  I  have  lost  all  relish  for  what  for- 
merly gave  me  pleasure  ;  even  my  books  no  longer  entertain 
me.  There  is  nothing  sticks  by  me  but  the  recollection  of 
what  little  good  I  may  have  done."  One  of  Mr.  Wesley's 
preachers,  who  was  present,  exclaimed  at  this,  "  Oh,  the  vain 
man,  boasting  of  his  good  works  I"  Dr.  Hales  vindicated  the 
good  old  bishop,  and  Mr.  Wesley  silenced  the  preacher  by 
saying,  "  Yes,  Dr.  Hales  is  right,  there  is  indeed  great  com- 
fort in  the  calm  remembrance  of  a  life  well  spent."  We 
are    always   reminded    that  an  evil  action  will  haunt  the 

*  Carlyle,  p.  289.  t  Life  of  Mr.  Bowyer,  p.  431. 

t  See  vol.  ii.  of  SoiUhey's  Life  of  Wesley. 


402  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSON'S  LIFE. 

death-bed  of  the  sinner ;  and  why  should  good  actions,  in  all 
humility  and  in  all  subservience  to  the  free  mercy  of  God,  be 
utterly  cast  out  of  remembrance  at  that  awful  season  ?  To 
any  disposed  to  cavil  on  this  subject,  or  inconsiderately  to 
raise  differences  ore  rotundo,  let  us  say  in  the  words  of  our 
greatest  dramatist,* 

"  Noble  friends, 

That  which  combined  us  was  most  great,  and  let  not 

A  leaner  action  rend  us.     What's  amiss, 

May  it  be  gently  heard  :  w^hen  w^e  debate 

Our  trivial  difference  loud,  we  do  commit 

Murder  in  healing  w^ounds." 

Great  calmness  in  death  has  been  the  blessed  privilege  of 
an  innumerable  multitude  of  the  members  of  the  Church  of 
England.!      Some  have  been  put  in  remembrance  of  a  good 

*  Shakspeare. 

t  Read  "  Sacred  Memorials  of  the  Last  Days  and  Blessed  Deaths  of 
Eminent  Christians,"  &c.  By  the  Rev.  Henry  Clissold,  A.M.  (Riving- 
tons).  This  book  can  not  be  too  highly  spoken  of:  it  is  the  book  of  all 
modern  books  of  a  sacred  character,  that  should  be  placed  in  the  hands 
of  every  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  a  guide,  counselor, 
comforter,  and  friend.  The  author's  pious  object,  with  the  blessing  of 
God,  in  compiling  this  book,  must  surely  be  successful — namely,  1st, 
For  the  use  of  the  thoughtless,  who,  he  hoped,  as  Addison  did,  might  be 
deeply  affected,  and  persuaded  by  such  sights,  when  unmoved  by  ab- 
stract reasoning.  2dly,  For  the  timid  and  desponding  Christian,  whose 
faith  might  be  strengthened  in  learning  how  w^onderfully  others  have 
been  supported  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  similar  trials.  3dly,  For  the  sick, 
who  in  these  narratives  might  find  much  food  for  religious  reflection, 
and  many  states  of  mind  worth  aiming  at  in  the  chamber  of  sickness. 

The  following  letter  is  from  the  late  Bishop  Burgess,  and  addressed 
to  a  friend  of  the  late  Dr.  Gaskin,  Secretary  to  the  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  Christian  Know^ledge  : 

"  Dear  Sir — Your  account  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Gaskin  shall  be  tran- 
scribed into  one  of  the  blank  pages  of  Clissold's  Last  Hours  of  Eminent 
Christians,  a  most  interesting  work  to  a  plusque-septuagenary,  which 
has  been,  for  some  time,  a  part  of  our  evening  reading.  It  is  a  most 
valuable  collection  of  practical  divinity,  taught  and  enforced  by  lessons 
of  unaffected,  undisguised,  unequivocal  instruction. 

"  Yours  most  sincerely, 

"  T.  Sarum." 

As  often  as  we  read  this  book,  we  may  well  praise  and  thank  God 
for  the  grace  it  hath  pleased  Him  to  bestow  on  members  of  the  Church 
of  England  ;  and  let  us  hope,  that  the  pages  of  this  book  will  be  largely 
replenished. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  403 

life  past ;  others,  which  is  better,  have  not  made  mention  of 
the  actions  that  adorned  their  useful  career.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Aylmer  was  a  pattern.  '-Let  my  people  know,"  he  said,  "  that 
their  pastor  died  undaunted,  and  not  afraid  of  death.  I  bless 
my  God  that  I  have  no  fear,  no  doubt,  no  reluctation,  but 
an  assured  confidence  in  the  sin-overcoming  merits  of  Jesus 
Christ."  And  in  the  conclusion  of  all,  he  shut  his  own  eyes 
ivith  his  own  hands,  dying  in  the  Lord  Jesus.  "  I  long  for 
death,"  exclaimed  the  Rev.  Thomas  Cole  (1697),  as  a  weary 
traveler  doth  for  his  rest ;  nothing  troubles  me  but  life,  and 
nothing  will  relieve  rae  but  death  :  but  let  God  do  with  me 
what  He  will :  all  He  does  is  best ;"  and,  after  expressing  full 
trust  in  his  Redeemer,  he  concluded,  "  I  long  to  be  immortal  : 
it  is  a  mean  thing  to  live  a  dying  life." 

Most  edifying  was  the  death-bed  of  Bishop  Bull.  "  Doctor," 
he  said  to  his  physician,  "  you  need  not  be  afraid  to  tell  me 
freely  what  your  opinion  of  me  is  :  for  I  thank  my  good  God, 
I  am  not  afraid  to  die  ;  it  is  what  I  have  expected  long  ago, 
and  I  hope  I  am  not  unprepared  for  it  now."  He  disclaim- 
ed all  notion  of  inherent  righteousness,  but  put  the  matter 
clearly,  in  a  few  words,  "  I  believe  that  while  I  bring  forth 
fruits  worthy  of  faith  and  repentance,  and  while  I  not  only 
abstain  from  those  crimes  which,  according  to  the  Gospel,  ex- 
clude a  man  from  heaven,  but  do  diligently,  likewise,  exercise 
myself  in  good  w'orks,  both  those  of  piety  toward  God,  and 
those  of  charity  toward  my  neighbor,  so  long  I  may  preserve 
the  grace  that  is  given  me  of  remission  and  justification  ;  and 
that,  if  I  die  in  this  state,  I  am  in  the  icay  of  obtaining 
it,  by  the  mercij  of  God,  and  eternal  life  and  salvation  for 
the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ^ 

Yes,  it  is  to  the  mercy  of  God  that  every  man  must  look 
in  a  dying  hour.  We  are  told  of  Bishop  Wilson,  that  "  all 
his  cry  was  for  mercy ;"  of  him,  who  like  a  full  ear  of  corn, 
was  bended  down  with  his  good  works  :  of  him  who  was  an 
"  epistle  known  and  read  of  all  men."  (2  Cor.  iii,  2.)  And 
we  are  told  *  of  a  minister  of  eminent  piety  and  distinguished 
usefulness,  who,  on  being  told  on  his  death-bed  by  his  sur- 
rounding friends,  that  he  was  going  to  receive  his  reward, 
*  Stoweirs  Life  of  Bishop  Wilson,  p.  254. 


40  J  CLOSE  OF  DR.  JOHNSOiN'S  LIFE. 

answered,  "  I  am  going  to  receive  mercy.'''  Dr.  Johnson,  on 
hearing  of  a  criminal's  prayer  for  mercy,  said  in  a  solemn, 
fervid  tone,  "  I  hope  he  ^hall  find  mercy."  And  let  us  hope 
that  Dr.  Johnson  himself,  the  learned,  the  great,  and  the  re- 
ligious, has  found  that  mercy  with  God  which  he  desired  so 
earnestly  for  an  unfortunate  fellow-creature.  Surely,  when 
we  contemplate  his  last  hours,  we  are  not  mistaken  in  put- 
ting into  his  mouth  the  lines  of  Sir  Henry  Wotton  : 

"  Now  have  I  done  ;  now  are  ray  thoughts  at  peace ; 
And  now  my  joys  are  stronger  than  my  grief; 
I  feel  those  comforts  that  shall  never  cease, 
Future  in  hope,  but  present  in  belief. 
Thy  words  are  true,  Thy  promises  are  just, 
And  Thou  wilt  find  Thy  dearly  bought — in  dust." 

And  now,  gentle  reader,  we  must  come  to  a  close.  Adam 
Clarke,  in  speaking  of  a  small  town  in  the  Land's  End  in 
Cornwall,  tells  us,  that  on  the  sign  of  an  inn,  as  you  come 
from  the  Land's  End,  are  these  words — "  The  first  Inn  in 
England  ;"  and  on  the  reverse  are  the  following — "  The  last 
Inn  in  England."  Reader  !  you  will  soon  have  come  from 
first  to  last  in  this  my  book,  wherein  I  trust  you  have  not 
been  wearily  detained  ;  at  all  events,  let  me  hope  that  your 
duty  hath  pardoned  any  want  of  entertainment  in  my  efforts  ; 
for,  as  has  been  said,*  <'  Personal  gratitude,  and  personal 
affection  to  the  good  and  great  who  have  closed  their  scene 
upon  earth,  are  elevated  sentiments.  They  are  debts  of 
honor  to  the  departed  spirit."  But,  reader,  you  will  soon 
have  passed  from  first  to  last  in  your  mortal  career  :  and 
while  you  derive,  throughout  your  course  on  earth,  much  in- 
struction from  Dr.  Johnson's  life  and  writings,  may  you  have 
a  fair  hope  of  the  mercy  of  God  in  your  entrance  upon  eter- 
nity ! 

Let  me  conclude  with  Dr.  Johnson's  own  words.  "  There 
are  few  things,"  he  writes  in  the  la2,t  number  of  his  Idler,! 
"  not  purely  evil,  of  which  we  can  say,  without  some  emotion 
of  uneasiness,  this,  is  the  last.  Those  who  never  could  asrree 
together,  shed  tears  when  mutual  discontent  has  determined 
them  to  final  separation  :  of  a  place  which  has  been  frequent- 
*  George  Hardinge  t  Vol.  ii.  p.  281. 


HIS  CALMNESS  IN  DEATH.  405 

ly  visited,  though  without  pleasure,  the  last  look  is  taken  with 
heaviness  of  heart  ....  The  termination  of  any  period  of  hfc 
reminds  us  that  hfe  itself  has  likewise  its  termination  :  when 
we  have  done  any  thing  for  the  last  time,  we  involuntarily 
reflect  that  a  part  of  the  days  allotted  us  is  past,  and  that  as 
more  is  past  there  is  less  remaining." 

So  is  it  with  the  author  in  writing  a  book — so  is  it  with 
the  reader  in  reading  it  I  And  to  all  men  there  is  a  time 
when  it  must  be  said — then  cometh  the  end. 


THE    END. 


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